Dear members and friends of the Sodality of Charity,
On March 18 we celebrated our Sodality’s heavenly patron St. Joseph. Some of our Sodalists wore red color in his honor, and we also did the stations of St. Joseph. We started the meeting with our usual act of charity of cleaning the candle followers for our parish sacristan, Sister Eulalia. Afterwards Mrs. Sarah Simpson gave some of the Sodalist a class in sewing. Meanwhile the other girls were making glitter bottles for sale to support the Sodality. The girls also did another big service for the church by preparing the easter eggs for our annual and traditional Easter Egg Hunt on Holy Saturday.
At the meeting we watched the movie Not Broken by a Christian movie director, 17-year-old Lauren Havel. I wrote a little review of it on my website. It gets harder and harder to find good family movies and I will review some of the rare good ones on my site from now on.
Sunday, March 19, was Lætare Sunday, or pink Sunday, and the Sodality had a craft sale table at Helfta Hall. Our total sales were $264. The Sodality officials, in their charity, decided to donate half of the sales to the Oblate Sisters, so our total profit of the day was $132.
I said the monthly Mass for all Sodality members on March 17, the feast of St. Patrick. Do not forget the First Wednesday on April 5, Spy Wednesday, even though it falls on Holy Week.
In March the Traditional Catholics of the world received a joyous news of the upcoming consecration of Fr. Okechukwu Bede Nkamuke. Bishop McGuire will consecrate him Bishop on Monday, May 1, the feast of the Apostles Sts. Philip and James. The faithful in Nigeria need a Bishop of their own, as do the Seminarians of the Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Seminary there. I hope all the Sodalists and their families are able to attend this very joyful event, and that they will also say many prayers for the new Bishop and his faithful in Nigeria.
Notice that because of the Holy Week, the upcoming consecration, and two weddings, we will not have a Sodality meeting in April. Our next Sodality meeting will be on Saturday, May 6, which is also the First Saturday of May. On this meeting the Sodalists will give a spiritual bouquet to the new Bishop, who will also give his blessing to the Sodality members. We will also have an enrollment of new members to the Sodality.
The preparations for the annual Girls Camp, which will be on June 27-29, are already on their way. Like last year, the girls who are 12 and older, can camp out at the church premises. On Tuesday, the older girls will do an outing to the local Keener Park, where they can play and take hikes in the woods. Instead of a baking contest, there will be a tea party, to which the girls will prepare fancy sandwiches. The older girls will do a play, and the younger girls a puppet show. There will also be square-dancing and many outdoor games and crafts, including collage board, tote bags, melt-o-bead charms, and lip-balm.
Speaking of Girls Camp, one of the former organizers of the said camp, Sister Mary Joseph, died on Thursday, March 9, at St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Round Top, NY, after having suffered over a year from cancer. She was born as Suzanne Patricia Collins and was a member of Bishop Clarence Kelly’s Daughters of Mary congregation. She joined the Daughters of Mary in 1984 and made her vows in 1987. In her earlier years she ran the Girls Camp for SGG, which at that time was at the Schappacher farm. She assisted Bishop Kelly and the congregation in many important positions. She was especially devoted to St. Joseph, on whose help she relied in all her needs. I offered a Mass for her on March 10, and I thank all the Sodalists who offered prayers for her soul. We should show gratitude for those who have done us good and be thankful of their charity. In his 1936 autobiography G.K. Chesterton called gratitude the chief idea of his life: “I will not say the doctrine I have always taught, but the doctrine I should always have liked to teach. That is the idea of taking things with gratitude, and not taking things for granted.”
I wish that everyone can take part in the most sacred season of the year at SGG. Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday, April 2. At 8:50 AM we have the blessing of palms, and the procession with a donkey. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we have the office of Tenebræ at 6:30 PM. On Holy Thursday there is a Pontifical High Mass at 9 AM, and also the traditional parish luncheon. You can bring something to share to the potluck. On Good Friday there is the Tre Ore devotion at noon with the Mass of the Presanctified. On Holy Saturday the Easter Vigil starts at 8 AM, and the ceremonies are followed by a dinner and an egg hunt. In your charity, you can help us by staying to help with the cleanup afterwards.
Yours in Christ and Mary,
Fr. Lehtoranta
