St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish – Hamilton

Where faith builds community | 125 Picton St. E., Hamilton, ON L8L 0C5

Category: From the Pastor’s Desk

Sunday, October 3, 2021 – the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Published October 03, 2021 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

The Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured under various titles. Among them we venerate the Holy Mother of God as the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary whose memorial is held every year on October 7th. We have just begun the month of October that is a Marian month dedicated in a special way to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. 

Every day numerous people throughout the world pray the Rosary. It is a good opportunity to refresh some information about this well-known prayer. According to pious tradition, in 1214 the Rosary was given to Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order, by the Blessed Virgin when she appeared to him. That scene is depicted in one of the stained glass windows in our church. Dominican Friars have become faithful promoters of the Rosary. 

The next force that helped to make this simple prayer more widespread was the influence of Pope Leo XIII who was called the Rosary Pope. He issued 12 encyclical and 5 apostolic letters on the Rosary, instituted the custom of daily Rosary prayer in the month of October and added the invocation Queen of the Most Holy Rosary to the Litany of Loreto. 

Traditionally, the Rosary contained 3 groups of mysteries: joyful, sorrowful and glorious, on which the faithful reflected on the 15 events of Jesus’ and Mary’s lives. In 2002, Pope St. John Paul II recommended an additional group called the Luminous Mysteries to the 15 Rosary mysteries, so now we have 20 mysteries of the Rosary. Many saints and pious people recommended praying the Rosary daily, called the Rosary a spiritual weapon against temptations and a powerful help for souls in Purgatory. 

I would like to highlight two celebrations this week:

Tuesday, Memorial of St. Faustina Kowalska. She was born in 1905 and at the age of 20 she enrolled in the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She recorded her spiritual journey along with her account of the apparitions of Jesus Merciful at the order of her confessor, Father Michael Sopoćko. She became an apostle of Divine Mercy. She was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000.

Thursday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 1571, Pope Pius V established the feast of Our Lady of Victory to commemorate the victory over the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto. 2 years later, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title of the feast to the feast of the Holy Rosary. In 1716, Pope Clement XI extended the feast to the universal Church and in 1960, Pope St. John XXIII changed the title to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. 

God bless,

Fr. Peter

Posted In From the Pastor's Desk

Feast of Corpus Christi – A nun, a priest and a pope behind establishing the feast…

Published June 04, 2021 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

Corpus Christi Feast –

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

A nun, a priest and a pope behind establishing the feast…

This feast (a Solemnity is a Feast of the highest rank) was established by Pope Urban IV in the 13th century. There is a quite interesting story behind it. The story involves a nun, a priest and a pope. Before he was elected pope in 1261, Urban was born Jacques Pantaléon in France in a family of humble origin. First he became a priest in Lyon, then a professor of Canon Law (Church’s Law) at Paris, Archdeacon in Liège, Belgium and bishop of Verdun and next patriarch of Jerusalem.

In the context of establishing the Feast of Corpus Christi, it is worth highlighting his stay in the region of Liège. What happened there at that time? Near Liège at the end of the 12th century twin girls were born: Juliana and Agnes. At the age of five they were orphaned and entrusted into the care of Augustinian nuns at the convent of Mont Cornillon. Agnes seems to have died young but Juliana grew to become so learned that she could read the Church Fathers in Latin and eventually became an Augustinian nun. From her early years Juliana had a great devotion to the Eucharist. When Juliana was 16 she had her first vision and then again subsequently several times during her Eucharistic Adoration she also had visions. The Lord made her understand the meaning of what had happened to her: she was asked to plead for instituting a liturgical feast dedicated to the Most Blessed Sacrament in which the faithful would be able to adore the Eucharist so as to increase in faith, to advance in the practice of the virtues, and to make reparation for offences to the Most Holy Sacrament.

After having overcome some obstacles, the feast was established for the Diocese of Liège by its bishop and it was there that idea was introduced to archdeacon Jacques Pantaléon who later became Pope Urban IV. Juliana was canonized and is known as St. Juliana of Liège or of Mont Cornillon or of Cornillon.
In 1263 a German priest, Peter of Prague, while making his pilgrimage to Rome stopped in Bolsena, in the Church of St. Christina, to celebrate Mass. While saying the consecration prayer he doubted Christ being actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. At the moment of his disbelief, blood began trickling from the consecrated host onto the altar and corporal. The priest immediately reported this miracle to the pope who at that time resided nearby in Orvieto. Urban IV sent his emissaries to investigate the miraculous event and ordered to bring the host and the bloodstained corporal to Orvieto. The relics then were placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today.

Inspired by the miracle, Pope Urban IV commissioned a Dominican friar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose the Mass and Office for the feast of Corpus Christi. Aquinas’ hymns in honour of the Holy Eucharist, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia are the beloved hymns that the Church sings on the feast of Corpus Christi as well as throughout the liturgical year during Exposition and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic processions.

Posted In Devotions | Feasts and Celebrations | From the Pastor's Desk | Liturgical Celebrations

Beginning of Lent

Published February 17, 2021 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

Every year we begin Lent with the imposition of ashes on our heads during Mass on Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent lasts 40 days (not counting the Lenten Sundays) and leads us to the celebrations of the Paschal Mystery of the Lord culminating in the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil.

During Lent we are encouraged to observe the main Lenten works such as prayer, penance, self-denial, fasting and almsgiving. Ash Wednesday is a universal day of fasting and abstinence from meat. According to Canon Law (#1252), by abstinence are bound those who have completed their 14th year
and the law of fasting binds the faithful who are between 18 and 60 years old (the obligation ceases with the beginning of the 60th year). On the day of fasting we can have only one meal and two small amounts of food. Fasting is not a kind of diet to keep our bodies healthy, but it has a profound spiritual meaning: we deprive ourselves of food in order to be more open to prayer, to share more in the suffering of those who are striving and to save money to give to the poor. Fasting is a penitential act intended to open our
hearts to God and our neighbours, means of purification and spiritual liberation and a witness of the depth of our faith. Abstinence, like fasting, is avoidance of something that is good in favour of something that is better. It is not a matter of vegetarianism or veganism. Fasting and abstinence are forms of penance in honour the sacrifice that Christ made for our sake on the Cross.

Posted In Feasts and Celebrations | From the Pastor's Desk | Liturgical Celebrations | Pastoral Notes

Parish Bulletin : Palm Sunday

Published April 05, 2020 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

From the Pastor’s Desk

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

In this way the crowds in Jerusalem greeted Jesus coming in the holy city. They spread their cloaks and cut branches from the trees, laying them on the road to honour the Son of David.

Each year Palm Sunday takes us spiritually to Jerusalem to sing Hosanna to the King. Yet, during the Liturgy we listen to the Passion of the Lord too. We proceed from that solemn and joyful entry to the Cross. Palm Sunday opens the most important week of the liturgical year – the Holy Week that prepares us directly for the Paschal Feasts. With the Lord’s Supper Mass, we begin the Sacred Pascal (Easter) Triduum – the greatest three days. The Liturgy leads us from the Cenacle through the Passion, Death and Grave to the glorious Resurrection of the Lord.

This year, due to the pandemic situation, our Holy Week will be different in its external form but the same in its importance and spiritual celebration. Although we cannot come together to the church to once again celebrate these mysteries of our faith we can be united with each other in spirit and through social media. Of course, it is a serious challenge for us all but on the other hand, this may confirm and strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ our Saviour and may make us more united as a faith community.
There will be live streamed Masses from our church on our parish facebook website (you do not need to have a facebook account to see the Masses):

Palm Sunday 11 am
Holy Thursday 7 pm
Easter Sunday 11 am

On Good Friday I encourage everyone to read the Passion of the Lord and pray the Stations of the Cross with your families.
In addition, I invite you to pray in unison with me, in your homes, the Divine Mercy Novena at 7 pm everyday beginning on Good Friday. The Divine Mercy Novena prayers and chaplet will be available on our website.

I would like to thank all of you who attended our live streamed Mass last Sunday as well as those who watched it later. It was really good to see you participating with your pastor during the celebration. I am thankful for your feedback and suggestions I have received. I am looking forward to our next Mass!

God bless,

Fr. Peter

Today’s Missal Page

https://www.livingwithchrist.ca/images/article_images/pdf/April_5_Pages_from_LWC_April2020.pdf

This Week’s Mass Intentions

Father Peter continues to celebrate Mass privately in his chapel. He will be remembering the following Mass intentions this week:

  • Tuesday April 7 – Repose of the souls of Filippo and Dominica Frisina by Antonio and Franca Frisina
  • Wednesday April 8 – Repose of the soul of Artur DaSilva by Isabel Canao

Posted In From the Pastor's Desk | Mass Time Updates

From the Pastor’s Desk : Living Water

Published March 16, 2020 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked Him, and he would have given you living water


The Third Sunday of Lent brings to us a remarkable Gospel account about Jesus and a Samaritan woman at the well of the Patriarch Jacob. The conversation that Jesus had with the woman brought her to profess her faith in the Messiah and to guide her neighbours to Jesus as well. In today’s Gospel passage we are told of Jesus’ desire for us to thirst for that living water which only Jesus can provide. This thirst appears first of all in a real desire to acknowledge the Lord, to come nearer to Him and to receive Him in His Word and Sacraments, especially in the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist.

This Thursday, March 19th, we observe the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Principal Patron of Canada and Patron of the Universal Church. Canadians can be proud that the largest shrine dedicated to St. Joseph, Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mont Royal in Montreal, is here in Canada. The Oratory is also famous due to its association with Saint Brother André Bessette who had a great devotion to St. Joseph. A reliquary containing St. Brother André’s heart can be found at the Oratory. Yearly more than 2 million pilgrims and tourists visit the shrine. In our church we too have a side chapel dedicated to St. Joseph with his statue.

There is a beautiful prayer to St. Joseph called a Memorare:

Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who implored your help and sought your intercession were left unassisted.
Full of confidence in your power I fly unto you and beg your protection.
Despise not O Guardian of the Redeemer my humble supplication, but in your bounty, hear and answer me. Amen.

St. Joseph – pray for us!

God bless,
Fr. Peter

Posted In From the Pastor's Desk

From the Pastor’s Desk : We Are Called To Be Holy

Published February 25, 2020 / by St. Lawrence Hamilton

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy 

The Lord ordered Moses to speak to the Israelites, to instruct them that first of all they were to be holy. This call to holiness is still obligatory for those who want to please the Lord. Jesus in today’s passage of the Gospel confirms that moral rule and expands on it. Holiness is required for all the faithful who take their faith seriously and, we should be reminded, it is achievable for everybody. No matter whether one is married or single, young or aged – everyone is called to holiness. Since we are celebrating the last Sunday before Lent today, the reflection on our own holiness may be a good start for this sacred time of penance and penitence. 

This Wednesday, February 26th, we begin the season of Lent observing Ash Wednesday. This is a day of abstinence and fasting. In our church there will be two Masses celebrated: at 9:15 a.m. along with St. Lawrence School and at 7 p.m.

When we are at the threshold of the season of Lent, it is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of what is the penitential discipline that we are to observe as Catholics. Although the rules of the days of penance are described by The Code of Canon Law (Church Law), the obligation to do penance is well rooted in the Gospel. Fasting is not a kind of diet to keep our bodies healthy, but it has a deeper spiritual meaning.  We deprive ourselves of food in order to be more open to prayer, to share more in the suffering of those who are struggling, and to save money to give to the poor. Fasting is a penitential act intended to open our hearts to God and our neighbours. It is a means of purification and spiritual liberation and a witness to the depth of our faith. Abstinence, like fasting, is avoidance of something that is desirable in favour of something that is better. It is not a matter of vegetarianism or veganism. Fasting and abstinence are forms of penance in honour the sacrifice that Christ made for our sake on the Cross. What is the difference between fasting and abstinence? Fasting refers to the number and quantity of daily meals we have whereas abstinence refers to refraining from eating a specific kind of food, for example meat. On the day of fasting we can have only one meal and two small amounts of food. The last chapter of the 4th Book of The Code states: “The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent. Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday” (Canons 1250-1251). In Canada, the Conference of Catholic Bishops has declared that Fridays are days of abstinence from meat, but Catholics may substitute special acts of charity or piety on this day, and the law of ‘abstinence from meat’ binds those who are 14 and older, and the law of ‘fasting’ binds those from 18 to 59 years of age.

God bless,

Fr. Peter

Posted In From the Pastor's Desk | Liturgical Celebrations