Weekly celebration of Sunday Mass is the Saturday Vigil Eucharistic Liturgy at 4:00 pm, Sunday at 9:30am and 12:30pm in Spanish. All Masses are live streamed on Facebook at the scheduled time and archived on our pairsh Facebook page or YouTube
Haga clic arriba para ver la misa dominical en vivo y a pedido y otras celebraciones litúrgicas en la iglesia.
Click here for an archive of Clement YouTube videos (including Masses)
Ash Wednesday Masses with Distribution of Ashes- 7:45 am School Mass, 12:10 (English), 6:00 pm (Spanish, 7:15pm (English)
Thursdays- There will be Adoration in Church beginning at 6:00 pm with a bilingual Closing Blessing at 8:00 pm. Reflection material will be available for your use.
Fridays- Way of the Cross (Stations) in church at 7:00pm. The reflections will be bilingual. Everyone will remain in their pews as we reflect on the stations. We will alternate between the tradition and the themes of Mary, Family and Peace.
From Fr. E.J. - -
I feel sure that almost everybody knows we celebrate February as Black History Month. It is meant to be an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. There will be many stories about these achievements throughout our media as well as individual personal stories. Perhaps many of you reading this letter have a story about how you have been gifted by the life of an African American with whom you have a relationship.
This week we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday. As you have often heard, Lent is all about Conversion preparing for Easter. Through prayer, sacrifice, fasting, and charity, how is the Lord inviting me individually, and all of us together, to grow in holiness of life? How is the Lord trying to move me and all of us, from sin to grace, from death to life?
Please allow me to tell you a story about a Lenten conversion that began in me 39 years ago and is still happening in me. I believe that sharing conversion experiences with one another can help us grow in our own conversions.
In Lent 1982, I lived in Cincinnati with 18 other friars on Woodburn Avenue. Most of us were theology students at Mount St. Mary Seminary. We took the Queen City Metro #24 bus back and forth from school. We lived in a very mixed neighborhood: homes and businesses, churches of different kinds, white folks and black folks. It was a fairly peaceful neighborhood without much trouble. From our house it was a half-mile walk down the street past the park to the bus stop.
One morning I left for school by myself for an early meeting I had there before classes. As I walked down the sidewalk, I noticed four young black men standing on the sidewalk alongside the park. All they were doing was talking and laughing with one another like friends do. And yet I felt myself feeling increasingly cautious, even fearful as I drew nearer to them. This was really odd because they were giving absolutely no indication that they intended to hurt me, bad-mouth me or cause me any kind of trouble. As I came upon them, they stood aside for me to walk through. As I said, “Good morning guys,” they returned their greetings quite happily and then returned to their talking and laughing as I went on to the bus stop.
That experience bothered me the rest of the day and pretty much for the rest of Lent and even to today. I realized then, and still do now, that I would not have been afraid at all if they had been four white guys. After talking about this experience with some trusted friends and my spiritual director, I had to admit that, on a deep level within myself, primarily on an unconscious level, I am a racist. Since then, I have learned that admitting to it is the beginning of the road to an ongoing conversion of growing in how to handle it and making it gradually ineffective. Thank the Lord he led me to those four guys long ago, and for how their history helped conversion in my own history. What is the story of conversion you hope to begin this Lent?