Welcome to St. Therese's

† No Mass scheduled this Saturday (5/30) as Father will be traveling to Harrodsburg, KY.

† Men’s Group will meet on Saturday, June 6th after the 8:30 am Mass. Repairs and maintenance for the church with social gathering to follow at Script Coffee on Broadway in Lebanon.

† There will be Mass on Memorial Day at 9 am.

† Ember Days this Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Everyone over seven years of age is bound to observe the law of abstinence. On days of partial abstinence, meat can only be taken at the main meal. Everyone over 21 and under 59 years of age is bound to observe the law of fast.

† Summer Mass Schedule: Now that school is out, the weekday Summer Mass schedule will be as follows: Tuesday through Thursday, the Mass times will be at 7:30 am. On Friday, Mass will be at 6 pm.

† Confirmation: For those of you who need to be confirmed, please let Father know.

† Easter Duty: All the faithful who have reached the use of reason are bound under the pain of mortal sin to receive Holy Communion worthily at least once during the Easter season. In the United States, this extends from the 1st Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday.

† 14 DAY SANCTUARY LAMP: If you would like to donate to light the 14 day sanctuary candle for your intentions, please let Father know. The donation for each candle is $25 (candles generally last 14 days, but sometimes they burn faster than expected).

† In your charity, please pray for the sick of the parish and those whom Father sees; Keith Sellers, Hope Wright, John Wright, Patrick Kennedy.

† The Novena to St. Therese after the Low Mass will be said for the INTENTIONS of obtaining a hall, classrooms for the school, and a priest rectory.

Reflection: The Catechism Explained by Stories and Examples by Fr. Francis Spirago. Fourteenth Lesson: On Baptism

Question: What is Baptism?

Answer: Baptism is a sacrament which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God, and heirs of heaven.

The Debtor’s Child & the Two Letters: By Baptism we are made inheritors of heaven. A kind-hearted nobleman took into his house the child of a man who died very much in his debt, and had him carefully brought up. One day he called the boy into his presence and showed him two documents; one was on black-edged paper and sealed with black wax. The other had a red margin and a red seal. The nobleman first placed the black edged document in the boy’s hand, and bade him open it. The boy broke the seal, but when his eye fell on its contents, he turned pale and looked aghast. In it all the debts which his father left unpaid were enumerated, and besides this, all

that his own education had cost his benefactor was reckoned up in plain figures. The orphaned boy was afraid of what would come next, when he saw how much both he and his father owed. But when the nobleman saw the frightened look on the child’s countenance, he smiled, and tore up the statement of the debt; then he gave him the other letter and bade him read it. It contained a full remittance of the other’s debt, and what is more, an act whereby the boy was adopted by the prince as his son, and constituted his heir. The delight he felt may be imagined; he was no longer a poor orphan hampered with debts, but the son of a noble and wealthy father. Thus it is with us mortals at our Baptism; for when the debt of original sin, the legacy of our first parents, is remitted, we are made the children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.

Question: Are actual sins ever remitted by Baptism?

Answer: Actual sins and all the punishment due to them are remitted by Baptism, if the person baptized be guilty of any.

The Baptismal Robe As A Shroud: The white robe worn at Baptism denotes the innocence which is restored to us in that sacrament. The missionaries tell us that it is the custom amongst the Chinese converts to keep with the utmost care the white veil which they wear at their Baptism, in order that on their death it may be put over their head when they are laid in the coffin. By this they intend to signify that the Christian ought to appear before God with his baptismal innocence unsullied.