Greetings Family & Friends,
I pray each of you is staying safe and reflecting on the Season as we prepare for Holy Week 2020. That begins this Palm Sunday, April 5 and runs through Easter Sunday, April 12th. These next two week will be very busy. Join us online and despite current events you can come by between the hours listed for Palms & Communion. Please do not hesitate to ask us to visit and bring you a Palm and Holy Communion. Please also help one another. Below is the updated Schedule for Holy Week 2020:
Palm Sunday – Sunday April 5th Between 9am – 11am Virtual Mass
Holy Thursday – Thurs April 9th 7pm Virtual Mass
Good Friday – Friday April 10th Virtual Stations of the Cross
Easter Vigil – Sat April 11th between 4:30pm – 6pm Virtual Mass
Easter Sunday – Sun April 12th between 9am – 11:30am Virtual Mass
Mass Times and all other Services will resume once the State’s Executive Order expire. All In-Person Services and Gathers are suspended until that happens. This includes Stations of the Cross, Mass times and Holy Rosary however each is available below on our website in a Virtual format.
Our website does provide for Virtual Holy Rosary & Benediction (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/benediction-rosary/), the Virtual Stations of the Cross (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-stations-of-the-cross/), and now it also has a page for a weekly Holy Mass (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-mass/).
Please remember to Support the Parish. We are in this together. Please discontinue donation through Facebook, however there are two donation links. One is our General Offering (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/donations/) and the other is our Building Fund (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/saint-bonaventure-parish-home-fund). Anyone wishing to send checks can bring them during the times listed above or by popping by the Parish Monday – Friday 4-5pm as well as by appointment. All Confession and Sacraments are by appointment and I will do my very best to accommodate your schedule. Our Address for mail is: 203 East 2nd North Street Summerville, SC 29483.
Saint Bonaventure Parish considers the health and well-being of our people to be the highest priority. We are following the directives of local, state and federal health authorities in establishing health and safety precautions throughout the state.
I Love You All and ask for your Prayers as well.
+Fr. Joseph Michael McDonald
I pray each of you has had a great past weekend and I want to say as always, I’ve missed seeing all of your faces. You really are dear to me. This message is fairly short and the big news is we are set to return to our normal schedule in just another week. This coming weekend we will still have Virtual Mass and everyone is invited to still come for Communion between the hours of 9am & 11:30am as well as by appointment of course. The following Saturday May 9th at 4:30pm we will have our Vigil Mass and as a reminder staring Sunday May 10th we return to our normal 9:30am & 11:15am Mass times. There are a few new precautions we are putting into place for your safety.
I have attached the 4th Sunday of Easter Bulletin along with an announcement for the upcoming Bible Study, which will now begin Thursdays starting May 28th at 7pm. One big reminder; We have postponed the Bake & Rummage Sales till late in June and that allows us plenty of time to prepare. The Anniversary Party and Retreat at Mepkin Abbey are both now planned for July. The Retreat at Mepkin is booked for Saturday July 18th from 8-1pm but I must advise it will be back in the Gallery behind the Bookstore.
Many have asked if we will continue to offer Virtual services beyond May 9th and the Answer is Yes:
Virtual Holy Rosary & Benediction (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/benediction-rosary/), the Virtual Stations of the Cross (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-stations-of-the-cross/), and now it also has a page for a weekly Holy Mass (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-mass/). All Events, Homily’s and messages will appear online. If there is a call for it: I will also gladly post the Weekly Bulletin on the website.
Please remember to Support the Parish. I can say that it is my honor to Love and Support you and I appreciate the kindness you provide to this Church I love so much.
General Offering (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/donations/)
Just Giving – Building Fund (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/saint-bonaventure-parish-home-fund). Anyone wishing to send checks can mail to: 203 East 2nd North Street Summerville, SC 29483.
The Lord in His life once said, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”. I pray your Joy is also in great abundance,
+Fr. Joseph Michael McDonald
Sometime shortly before Lent or on the first day or two of the season, take 30 minutes to pray. Ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance, look over this list of ideas, and make a few practical Lenten resolutions. You can start with just one idea. But don’t start with more than three ideas! Be careful. If you try to implement too many ideas at once, you may not succeed in anything! If you need to get up early or stay up late to get the 30 minutes of quiet, do it! Turn off your phone and computer. Don’t put it off and don’t allow interruptions.
EUCHARISTIC IDEAS FOR LENT
Get to daily Mass during Lent.
If you can’t do Mass daily during Lent, go to Mass on Fridays in addition to Sunday and thank Him for laying his life down for you. Maybe you can go another time or two as well during the Lenten season.
Spend at least 30 minutes in Eucharistic adoration at least one time during each week of Lent.
Recover the Catholic tradition of making frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament throughout the week, even if it is only for 5 minutes.
Even if you can’t get to daily Mass, get a daily Catholic Missal or go online or get a smart phone app such as Laudate or iMissal to get a list of the readings used each day in Mass, and read these readings daily during Lent. During special seasons such as Lent, the Mass readings are thematically coordinated and make for a fantastic Bible study!
IDEAS FOR LENTEN REPENTANCE
Get to confession at least once during the season of Lent after making a good examination of conscience. If you are not sure why confession is important, get my CD “Who Needs Confession.”
In addition to the penance assigned by the priest, fulfill the conditions necessary for a plenary indulgence. You can learn about plenary indulgences from the official Handbook of Indulgences.
cd-40days40ways
IDEAS FOR PRAYER DURING LENT
Daily, make a plan to get up earlier than anyone else in your house and spend your first 15 minutes of the day thanking God for the gift of life and offering your day to Him.
Make a decision to read at least some Scripture every day during Lent!
Pray the Liturgy of the Hours during Lent. You can buy a one volume edition or a full four volume edition. Or you can get it day by day for free using one of the smart phone apps such as Laudate or iBreviary or online at DivineOffice.org or Universalis. Or you can subscribe to a monthly publication called the Magnificat that provides a few things from the Liturgy of the Hours together with the Mass readings of the day. The Magnificat is a great way to start learning the Liturgy of the Hours.
Prayer is like breathing – you have to do it continually. But sometimes you need to pause and take a very deep breath. That’s what a retreat is all about. Plan a retreat this Lent. It could be simply a half day, out in nature, or in a Church. Or it could be a full day. Or an overnight. You can certainly read lots of things during your retreat or listen to lots of talks. But try sticking mostly to Scripture, the liturgy, and quiet as much as you can. During or at the end of the retreat, write down what the Holy Spirit seems to be saying.
Make the Stations of the Cross each Friday of the Season of Lent either with a group or by yourself. If you have kids, bring them.
Make it a habit to stop at least five times a day during Lent, raise your heart and mind to God, and say a short prayer such as “Jesus, I love you,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or “Lord, I offer it up for you.”
For more of great ideas for the Lenten Season, check out Dr. Italy’s podcast on Lent.
MARIAN IDEAS FOR LENT
Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary often during Lent, especially on Friday and Wednesday. The glorious mysteries are especially appropriate on Sundays. Joyful and Luminous mysteries are great on other days.
Purchase the Scriptural Rosary, which supplies you with a scripture verse to recite between each Hail Mary. This makes it easier to meditate on the mysteries. Another Lenten resource to deepen your understanding of the Rosary is my CD set “How Mary and the Rosary can Change Your Life.”
If you’ve never done a family rosary, begin doing it. You could start with once a week on Friday or Sunday. If it’s tough to start with a full five decades, try starting with one. Use the Scriptural Rosary and have a different person read each of the Scriptures between the Hail Mary’s. This gets everyone more involved.
LENTEN IDEAS FOR INTERCESSION
Pray each day during Lent for the intentions and health of the Holy Father.
Pray each day for your bishop and all the bishops of the Catholic Church.
Pray for your priests and deacons and for all priests and deacons.
Pray for the millions of Christians suffering under persecution in various Muslim and Communist countries around the world such as the Somalia, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Indonesia, China, Viet Nam, and North Korea.
Pray for Christian unity, that there would be one flock and one shepherd.
Pray for the evangelization of all those who have not yet heard and accepted the Good News about Jesus.
Here’s a great Lenten idea: Pray for your enemies. In fact, think of the person who has most hurt you or who most annoys you and spend several minutes each day thanking God for that person and asking God to bless him or her.
Pray for an end to abortion on demand. Pray for pregnant women contemplating abortion.
Pray during Lent for a just peace in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, the Holy Land and elsewhere. Pray for our troops and for others in harm’s way.
Pray for an end to capital punishment. Pray for those on death row, and for the families of murder victims.
IDEAS FOR LENTEN FASTING
Find a form of Lenten fasting that is appropriate for you, given your age, state of health, and state of life. We need to broaden our idea of fasting. Some fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays. Others fast from sweets or alcohol throughout Lent. Some fast on one or more days per week from breakfast all the way to dinner, spending lunch hour in prayer or at noon Mass. Another idea is to cut out all snacks between meals or to forego Starbucks stops and eating out. The money saved from not buying various things should be given to an apostolate or ministry serving the physically or spiritually poor.
IDEAS FOR LEARNING IN LENT
Get to know the Fathers of the Church and read selections from them along with Scripture. Short selections from the Fathers writing on Lenten themes and ideas can be downloaded for free from the Lenten Library of the Crossroads Initiative.
Find a written biography of a Saint that particularly appeals to you, and read it during the Season of Lent. If you’ve never read it, Mark Twain’ historical novel on St. Joan of Arc is fantastic.
Instead of secular videos for weekend entertainment during Lent, try some videos that will enrich your spiritual life. Suggestions: Jesus of Nazareth, by Franco Zeffirelli or The Scarlet and the Black.
While driving, turn off the secular radio for a while and use commute time to listen to some spiritual teaching on CD, your smart phone or Catholic Radio. Some great resources can be purchased through your local Catholic book store or online.
WORKS OF MERCY FOR LENT
Find a local homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or crisis pregnancy center, and volunteer some time there throughout Lent. Serve the people there with the understanding that in so doing, you are serving Jesus. Try to see Jesus in each person there.
works of mercy
Visit someone at a nursing home or in the hospital or sick at home. Love Jesus in and through the suffering person.
Is there a widow or divorced person living in your neighborhood? If so, it would be a great idea to invite that person to your home for dinner, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
Get the video of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ and watch it during Lent if you feel you can handle the violence (there is also a version with many of the most violent scenes cut out). Get a copy of The Guide to the Passion to help you get the most out of the movie.
Invite someone over to your house to watch Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ, especially someone whose faith is rather nominal, or who does not practice his or her faith, or who does not profess Christian faith at all. Give them a copy of The Guide to the Passion: A Hundred Questions about the Passion of the Christ.
REFOCUS YOUR PRIORITIES FOR LENT
If you are married, it would be an awesome Lenten idea to spend some special, focused time with your spouse, strengthening your marriage. Start praying together, or make praying together a more frequent occurrence.
Spend some focused time together with each of your children, or your siblings, or your parents. Listen. Pray. Maybe even have fun! Yes, fun can be an appropriate idea for a Lenten penance. Holiness is not supposed to be glum!
LENT – PATH TO A CHANGED LIFE
When Easter comes, don’t drop the new ideas and practice you’ve begun during the Season Lent! Make them a permanent feature of a deeper, richer Christian life!
This is a part of our multi-pathed journey to raise money for our Church Relocation. We are making efforts in a few ways. This is another simple way to make a donation that will go toward that singular efford. We are listed as a 501c3 nonprofit and this provides a mechanism to protect tax free donations. Thank you for All that you Do. For those local to the Parish in Summerville, SC, you can continue to utilize our website (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/donations/ or via Square link https://saint-bonaventure-parish.square.site/) or the ongoing effort with JustGiving (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/saint-bonaventure-parish-home-fund). Also feel free to ask me and I’ll provide that information to you. Fr. Joseph
Please also share us because that helps as well.
Let Us Pray (The Angelus & 3 O’CLOCK PRAYER)
The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.”
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
“Hail Mary…”
And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.
“Hail Mary…”
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. —
You died Jesus but the source of life flowed out for souls and the ocean of mercy opened for the whole world.
O fountain of Life, immeasurable Divine Mercy, cover the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water which flowed from the heart of Jesus as a Fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You!
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and the whole world. 3X
Jesus King of Mercy, I trust in You!
— This is Divine Mercy Sunday —
In his appearance to his disciples, after his typical greeting of ‘Peace be with you’, Jesus performs three significant actions: 1) Jesus commissions them: “’As the Father sent me, so am I sending you” (Jn 20:21). 2) then “He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22), in a sense -Easter and the Pentecost are one & we receive the Holy Spirit when we experience the Risen Lord. 3) finally, on the same day, Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained” (Jn 20:23). It is in the 3rd we experience His Divine Mercy – It is God who really forgives. The priest – who takes the place of the ‘disciples’ of Jesus today – absolves in the name of the Church, freeing from guilt and blame
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (C.C.C. # 1449).
Misericordia, Mercy – Was & IS, always given, But Only to those Who asked for it, those who know they need it:
The blind man, Bartimaeus, cried out to Jesus, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me”, and he received his sight (Mk 10:48; also Mt 9:27; Mt 20:31; Lk 18:38; note that the word ‘pity’ can also be translated as ‘mercy’.)
The Canaanite woman cried out to Jesus on behalf of her daughter, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.” And her daughter was freed (Mt 15:22).
The ten lepers called to Jesus, “Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us.” And they were cleansed (Lk 17:13).
In the parable of the two men who went up to the Temple to pray, “the tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Lk 18:10-14). The man went home justified.
Let us also cry to God in Jesus, “Have mercy!” & He will re-create us. Today, we want to join the Psalmist and sing: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his faithful love (mercy) endures for ever” (Ps 118:1).
This day we celebrate the richness, meaning, participation in and application of God’s mercy for us.
This day we cry out with St. Thomas: “My Lord and My God” (Jn 20:28).
This is the day the Lord has made:
This is the day of Atonement described in the Old Testament (Lev 16 and Sirach 50). But now the Blood of Jesus is sprinkled on the mercy seat. Now Jesus, the scapegoat and lamb of God, has taken our sins. Now we are cleansed in the blood of Jesus!
This is the day of the covenant. On the eighth day of resurrection, the octave day, we celebrate God’s solemn commitment, His covenant of merciful love. We ratify the covenant of mercy by receiving the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
This is the day we celebrate God’s mercy! His mercy is infinite! His mercy is greater than sin, than evil, than suffering, than death! In His mercy we have victory, salvation and eternal life.
We should celebrate with Novenas of chaplets, by the “Tribunal of mercy,” the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by venerating the sacred image of the merciful Savior, gazing upon it as a reminder to trust Jesus & to be merciful to others, & last we must seal & ratify the covenant of mercy by receiving Holy Communion!
This day is a day of new purification, new beginnings, like a new baptism. Amen
(843)376-7824
ReverendJosephM@Outlook.com
https://thegoodlifechurch.org
Brother & Sisters in Christ,
It has been a true blessing to see so many of you in person again. I know many of you still have concerns and I most assuredly understand your Health is very important me. Mass times are back to normal which are: Saturdays 4:30pm, Sundays 9:30am & 11:15am. This coming weekend will be very important in the History of our Church and I urge all than can to please attend both Saturday Mass at 4:30pm for the Ordination of Waye Wilson and Sunday at 12:30pm for our Cookout Potluck. The church will have both of these celebrations outside on the, beautifully arranged for your safety. The Church will provide hamburgers and vegi-burgers (😉) as well as paper products, sodas, water, sweet tea and/or punch. We have macaroni & cheese, potato salad, chocolate cake and I believe a few other things, however we ask you to bring your favorites as well for the Sunday meal.
I want to ask you to pray for Waye Wilson on his upcoming Ordination and for your Church. We love you and we need your prayers. I have attached the 7th Sunday of Easter Bulletin as well as the Diaconal Ordination Program.
Reminders: Our Upcoming Bible Study will be held Thursdays starting May 28th at 7pm. The Bake & Rummage Sales is in June but we need volunteers for this. The Anniversary Party and Retreat at Mepkin Abbey are both now planned for July. The Retreat at Mepkin is booked for Saturday July 18th from 8-1pm. Holy Rosary is held 11am Wednesdays starting Wednesday May 13th.
Virtual Holy Rosary & Benediction (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/benediction-rosary/), the Virtual Stations of the Cross (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-stations-of-the-cross/), and now it also has a page for a weekly Holy Mass (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/virtual-mass/). All Events, Homily’s and messages will appear online. If there is a call for it: I will also gladly post the Weekly Bulletin on the website.
General Offering (https://thegoodlifechurch.org/donations/)
Just Giving – Building Fund (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/saint-bonaventure-parish-home-fund). Anyone wishing to send checks can mail to: 203 East 2nd North Street Summerville, SC 29483.
Pax et Bonum
+Fr. Joseph Michael McDonald