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Halloween
Helen, Saint
Joseph, Saint
Kateri Tekakwitha, Blessed
Lent
Mama Dee
May, the Month of Mary
Mother's Day

What is the Church's Position on
Halloween, Harry Potter, etc?

Trick or treat? Many Catholics want to know how to relate to the popular Halloween event, Harry Potter, fortune tellers, and other spooky matters.
Here is an excellent site on this issue from AmericanCatholic.org

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Who is Saint Helen?

During her lifetime Helen was the most popular woman in the Roman Empire and perhaps the entire world. Yet, today, people know little about her.

Remembered today as the finder of the true cross, Helen was revered in her lifetime for her church building and charitable activities. Born of pagan parents in 255 A.D. in Drepanum, an ancient city in present day Turkey, Helen became an innkeeper. She married Constantius Chlorus, a Roman general who later cast her aside for political reasons. From this relationship her son, who would become Emperor Constantine I, was born.

Baptized a Christian at age 63, Helen practiced her religion faithfully. Dressing simply, she slipped into Mass in Rome among the crowds, helped at the convent on Mount Sion and performed great works of charity for the poor with her personal funds. Her life was not one of glamour and glory, but one for which God had chosen her. Helen, "Empress of the World" and "Mistress of the Empire," looked upon herself as "servant of the handmaids of Christ."

In her glorification of God, Helen exercised great influence on her son's church-building campaign. While excavating for the building of a basilica on the summit of Golgotha which Helen was supervising, she is credited with identifying the true cross of Christ. The relics of the true cross that are venerated everywhere in Christendom today are traditionally associated with Helen.

Helen died in Nicomedia in 333 A.D. Her popularity is attested to by the numerous Byzantine icons, paintings, sculptures and mosaics. Some depict Saint Helen, holding the true cross, distributing alms to the needy or holding a replica of a basilica in her hands. Even greater indications of her appeal are the numerous churches dedicated to her and the countless girls baptized with her name.

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Why are there two feasts of Saint Joseph?

The Feast of St. Joseph lands on two different days. The first in the year is celebrated on March 19. This feast day is called, Joseph, Husband of Mary. The feast celebrates the day on which, according to the Roman Martyrology, he died and went to heaven. The title, Husband of Mary, indicates his spousal relationship with the mother of Jesus. It also reminds us that Joseph is the foster-father of Jesus.

The second feast, Joseph the Worker, lands on May 1 of each year. This title was given to promote the dignity of work and to add the Church's blessing upon all workers through the intercession of St. Joseph (the carpenter).

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Who is Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha?

Kateri Tekakwitha was a daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman who was captured by Iroquois and married to a non-Christian Mohawk chief. Her parents died due to smallpox. Though she survived this terrible epidemic, Kateri was left with a scarred face and impaired eyesight. The Jesuit missionaries who came to share the Gospel to her tribe, impressed Kateri. She later converted and was baptized in 1676 by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit. This caused her to be persecuted for her faith. She took a vow of chastity in 1679 and was known for her deep spirituality and austere lifestyle. She is the first Native American proposed for canonization. Her Feast Day is July 14 th .

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What is Lent? (and other Questions related to it)

Q: What is Lent?

A:: Historically, Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, it began on Ash Wednesday and ended on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). In recent years, this has been modified so that it now ends with evening Mass on Holy Thursday, to prepare the way for Triduum.

Q: Why are Sundays excluded from the reckoning of the forty days?

A: Because Sunday is the day on which Christ arose, making it an inappropriate day to fast and mourn our sins. On Sunday we must celebrate Christ's resurrection for our salvation. It is Friday on which we commemorate his death for our sins. The Sundays of the year are days of celebration and the Fridays of the year are days of penance.

Q: Why are the forty days called Lent?

A: They are called Lent because that is the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or "the forty days."

Q: Why is Lent forty days long?

A: Because forty days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion, and preparation in the Bible. Thus Moses stayed on the Mountain of God forty days (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28), the spies were in the land for forty days (Numbers 13:25), Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kings 19:8), Nineveh was given forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4), and most importantly, prior to undertaking his ministry, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting (Matthew 4:2).

Since Lent if a period of prayer and fasting, it is fitting for Christians to imitate their Lord with a forty day period. Christ used a forty day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for his ministry, which culminated in his death and resurrection, and thus it is fitting for Christians to imitate him with a forty day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for the celebration of his ministry's climax, Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the day of the resurrection).

Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

" 'For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning' [Heb 4:15]. By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert." (CCC 540).

Q: When does Lent begin?

A: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is the day on which they faithful have their foreheads signed with ashes in the form of a Cross (see piece on Ash Wednesday). It is also a day of fast and abstinence.

Q: What is a day of fast and abstinence?

A: Under current canon law in the Western Rite of the Church, a day of fast is one on which Catholics who are eighteen to sixty years old are required to keep a limited fast. In this country, one may eat a single, normal meal and have two snacks, so long as these snacks do not add up to a second meal. Children are not required to fast, but their parents must ensure they are properly educated in the spiritual practice of fasting. Those with medical conditions requiring a greater or more regular food intake can easily be dispensed from the requirement of fasting by their pastor.

A day of abstinence is a day on which Catholics fourteen years or older are required to abstain from eating meat (under the current discipline in America, fish, eggs, milk products, and condiments or foods made using animal fat are permitted in the Western Rite of the Church, though not in the Eastern Rites.) Again, persons with special dietary needs can easily be dispensed by their pastor.

Q: In addition to Ash Wednesday, are any other days during Lent days of fast or abstinence?

A: Yes. All Fridays during Lent are days of abstinence. Also, Good Friday, the day on which Christ was crucified, is another day of both fast and abstinence.

All days in Lent are appropriate for fasting or abstaining, but canon law does not require fasting on those days. Such fasting or abstinence is voluntary, like a freewill offering.

Q: Why are Fridays during Lent days of abstinence.

A: This is because Jesus died for our sins on Friday, making it an especially appropriate day of mourning our sins (just as Sunday, the day on which he rose for our salvation is an especially appropriate day to rejoice) by denying ourselves something we enjoy. During the rest of the year Catholics in this country are permitted to use a different act of penance on Friday in place of abstinence, though all Fridays are days of penance on which we are required to do something expressing sorrow for our sins, just as Sundays are holy days on which we are required to worship and celebrate God's great gift of salvation.

Q: Are acts of repentance appropriate on other days during Lent?

A: Yes. Thus the Code of Canon Law states:

(CIC 1250). "All Fridays through the year and he time of Lent are penitential days and time throughout the universal Church"

Q: Why are acts of repentance appropriate at this time of year?

A: Because it is the time leading up to the commemoration of Our Lord's death for our sins and the commemoration of his resurrection for our salvation. It is thus especially appropriate to mourn the sins for which he died. Human have an innate psychological need to mourn tragedies, and our sins are tragedies of the greatest sort. Due to our fallen nature humans also have a need to have set times in which to engage in behavior (which is why we have Sundays as a set time to rest and worship, since we would otherwise be likely to forget to devote sufficient time to rest and worship), it is appropriate to have set times of repentance. Lent is one of those set times.

Q: What are appropriate activities for ordinary days during Lent?

A: Giving up something we enjoy for Lent, doing of physical or spiritual acts of mercy for others, prayer, fasting, abstinence, going to confession, and other acts expressing repentance in general.

Q: Is the custom of giving up something for Lent mandatory?

A: No. However, it is a salutary custom, and parents or caretakers may choose to require it of their children to encourage their spiritual training, which is their prime responsibility in the raising of their children.

Q: Since Sundays are not counted in the forty days of Lent, does the custom of giving up something apply to them?

A: Customarily, no. However, since the giving up of something is voluntary to begin with, there is no official rule concerning this aspect of it. Nevertheless, since Sundays are days of celebration, it is appropriate to suspend the Lenten self-denial on them that, in a spiritual and non-excessive way, we may celebrate the day of Our Lord's resurrection so that that day and that event may be contrasted with the rest of the days of Lent and the rest of the events of history. This heightened contrast deepens the spiritual lessons taught by the rest of Lent.

Q: Why is giving up something for Lent such a salutary custom?

A: By denying ourselves something we enjoy, we discipline our wills so that we are not slaves to our pleasures. Just as indulging the pleasure of eating leads to physical flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in physically demanding situations, indulging in pleasure in general leads to spiritual flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in spiritual demanding situations, we when the demands of morality require us to sacrifice something pleasurable (such as sex before marriage or not within the confines of marriage) or endure hardship (such as being scorned or persecuted for the faith). By disciplining the will to refuse pleasures when they are not sinful, a habit is developed which allows the will to refuse pleasures when they are sinful. There are few better ways to keep one's priorities straight than by periodically denying ourselves things of lesser priority to show us that they are not necessary and focus our attention on what is necessary.

Q: Is the denying of pleasure an end in itself?

A: No. It is a only a means to an end. By training ourselves to resist temptations when they are not sinful, we train ourselves to reject temptations when they are sinful. We also express our sorrow over having failed to resist sinful temptations in the past.

Q: Is there such a thing as denying ourselves too many pleasures?

A: Most definitely. First, God made human life contingent on certain goods, such as food, and to refuse to enjoy enough of them has harmful consequences. For example, if we do not eat enough food it can cause physical damage or (in the extreme, even death). Just as there is a balance between eating too much food and not eating enough food, there is a balance involved in other goods.

Second, if we do not strike the right balance and deny ourselves goods God meant us to have then it can generate resentment toward God, which is a spiritual sin just as much as those of engaging in excesses of good things. Thus one can be led into sin either by excess or by defect in the enjoyment of good things.

Third, it can decrease our effectiveness in ministering to others.

Fourth, it can deprive us of the goods God gave us in order that we might praise him.

Fifth, it constitutes the sin of ingratitude by refusing to enjoy the things God wanted us to have because he loves us. If a child refused every gift his parent gave him, it would displease the parent, and if we refuse gifts God has given us, it displeases God because he loves us and wants us to have them.

Q: Is that balance the same for all people?

A: No. For example, with the good of food, people who are by nature physically larger need more food than people who are physically smaller. Similarly, people who have higher metabolisms or who do manual labor for a living need more food than people with slower metabolisms or who have less active lifestyles. The same is true with regard to other goods than food. The St. Paul speaks of this in regard to the good of married life:

" I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion" (1 Corinthians 7:7-9).

Thus some are given the gift of being able to live without the good of married life in order that they may pursue greater devotion to God (1 Cor. 7:32-34) or to pursue greater ministry for others (2 Timothy 2:3-4), as with priests, monks, and nuns. God gives these people special graces to live the life which they have embraced, just as he gives special graces to the married to live the life they have embraced.

Q: Aside from Ash Wednesday, which begins Lent, what are its principal events?

A: There are a variety of saints' days which fall during Lent, and some of these change from year to year since the dates of Lent itself change based on when Easter falls. However, the Sundays during the Lenten season commemorate special events in the life of Our Lord, such as his Transfiguration and his Triumphal Entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, which begins Holy Week. Holy week climaxes with Holy Thursday, on which Christ celebrated the first Mass, Good Friday, on which he was Crucified, and Holy Saturday -- the last day of Lent -- during which Our Lord lay in the Tomb before his Resurrection on Easter Sunday, the first day after Lent.

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Who is Mama Dee?

Sister Dolores was born on April 17, 1928 in San Francisco, California and entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family on July 2, 1951. She ministered as a religious educator in parishes throughout California. Under the auspices of the Latin American Mission Program, she also served in Baja California as a catechist.

In 1975, “Mama Dee” as she was affectionately known, became a pastoral associate and the director of social concerns at St. Rose of Lima Parish. Her ministry to the poor became well known in Chula Vista, Tecate, Mexicali, and Tijuana where she coordinated a variety of programs. She also founded a community food pantry at St. Rose of Lima that continues to provide food to hundreds of families each year.

Her love for children was remarkable. “Mama Dee” believed the way to a child’s head was through the stomach. Consequently, many of her efforts were aimed at providing food to struggling families with children. Several orphanages in Baja California also benefited from her work. Visiting families in the poorest colonias, and offering food, clothing, medicines, blankets, and other household items was one of her greatest passions.

Sister Dolores developed a tremendous relationship with the St. Rose of Lima community and beyond. She had a remarkably dedicated and enthusiastic cadre of volunteers and benefactors that supported her mission to serve the poor. From collecting day old bread, driving trucks to the Food Bank, and painting dormitories at the orphanage, Mama Dee’s team touched so many lives.

Following her death in 2001, St. Rose of Lima parish established the Sister Dolores Social Outreach Program, in honor of her love and dedication to the poor. Her life continues to be an inspiration to the volunteers and patrons who strive to keep her efforts alive. Nearly 300 people a month receive food, clothing, shelter, and other services from the outreach program. The generous donation of time, talent, and treasure by so many of our parishioners and friends make this possible.

Presently, the pantry and office is run by Trudy Balestreri, Director for Social Ministry. Trudy has been with the parish staff for nearly two years and has been witness to the outpouring of love and support from members of our parish who want to help the poor. She is always looking for people with additional time and talent, as well as treasure to keep the Emergency Assistance center open. You can call on her Monday, Wednesday, or Friday of each week. Her number is 427-7637. Visit this page for more information

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Why is May the Month of Mary?

The month of May is traditionally dedicated to Mary in many cultures. May is considered the season of the beginning of new life. Already in Greek culture, May was dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of fecundity. In Roman culture, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of bloom, of blossoms. The Romans celebrated ludi florales (literally: floral games) at the end of April, asking the intercession of Flora for all that blooms. This is also related to the medieval practice of expelling winter. May 1 was considered the beginning of growth.

At one time, the custom of having a Mary-month was independent from the month of May as such:

A very old tradition known as Tricesimum (or: Thirty Day Devotion to Mary; also called Lady Month) was originally held from August 15 - September 14. The exact dates or origin of this devotion are unknown, but the custom is still practiced here and there.

Mary Month, as yet unrelated to a specific period, has been known since baroque times (Sources: Johannes Nadasi; Theophilus Marianus, 1664; J. X. Jacolet, Mensis Marianus, 1724). This devotion was comprised of 30-31 spiritual exercises in honor of Mary.

Since medieval times, we have the combination between Mary and the month of May. Among the earliest witnesses are: Alphonsus X, "el sabio", King of Castille, Spain (1221-1284) with his "Cantigas de Santa Maria" ("Ben venna Mayo"). Here and elsewhere, both Mary and the month of May are greeted, welcomed and celebrated on specific days in May. Later, the whole month of May became the month of Mary. On each day of this month, special devotions to Mary were organized. This custom originated in Italy (for example: Ferrara, 1784). It was spread widely during the 19th century, a century well known for its monthly devotions (Heart of Jesus in June; Rosary in October).

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When did Mother's Day Begin?

Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday.

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