Good morning, students! Today is the beginning of the Diocese of Charlotte's parish-based Eucharistic Congress celebration. This annual event is usually held at the Charlotte Convention Center but since we cannot have a large gathering this year, Bishop Jugis is instead encouraging each parish to celebrate our love of the Eucharist locally.
St. Mary's will begin its celebration with all day Adoration today beginning after Mass at 9:00 am and ending with Benediction at midnight. WCU students are especially encouraged to participate during the final hour beginning at 11:00 pm, during which I will preach a special homily on The Eucharist as Wedding Feast. It would help us to have a head count, so please sign up here if you'd like to attend.
On Saturday, there will be a Holy Hour of Reparation at 8:00 am followed by Mass at 9:00 am. After Mass, Fr. Paul will give a talk on Miracles of the Holy Eucharist followed by a Eucharistic Procession around the parish neighborhood concluding with Benediction in the church (around 11:00 am). Western students are encouraged to join in the parish celebration. See St. Mary's website for more information.
Changes to our weekly schedule
SUNDAY: Starting this Sunday, we plan to offer a free hot dog dinner after our 4:00 pm Mass at Hillside Grind. Hot dogs will be prepared and served following COVID-19 protocols and everyone is invited to stay for some outdoor food and fellowship. While we eat, I'll take any and all questions you may have about God, Faith, Life, the Universe and Everything.
TUESDAY & THURSDAY ADORATION: Effective this week, the Tuesday and Thursday noon Holy Hours are being removed from the schedule due to low participation. I am open to offering additional times of Adoration during the week, but want it to be during times when students will be able to participate. If you are interested in regular times for Adoration, please email and let me know what times would work best for you.
FRIDAY: Immediately after the 12:15 pm weekday Mass on Fridays, we will pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the intentions of our WCU students, staff and faculty during during the coronavirus pandemic.
Are there limits to God's forgiveness?
The message of this week’s gospel is pretty clear. We need to forgive others if we expect God to forgive us (Mt 18:21-35). But this raises an interesting question: if God expects us to forgive without limits or condition, why does he seem to make his forgiveness conditional upon our forgiving others? To answer this question, we talk about the nature and effect of forgiveness in this week's video, and what happens both when we forgive others, and when God forgives us.
In Christ's Peace,
