2024 Lent Prayer Companion Booklets

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Lent is your opportunity to be even more intentional about your faith so that you can know the Father’s mercy, grow closer to Jesus and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Being intentional is more than a mindset, it calls for action. Our Lenten tradition guides us to actively participate with prayer, fasting and service to others.

There is something for everyone in this booklet. Whether this is your first Lent or you have participated for many years, this companion is for you. Throughout these pages, you will find stories and reflections from your fellow St. Francis de Sales parishioners.

We pray that by journeying through Lent toward Jesus and His Resurrection, you will experience a conversion of your heart and mind and share in the Easter Hope of new things to come!!! 

Please keep our parish community in your prayers! If you have any questions please contact us at parishoffice@stfrancislz.org. God Bless!

The password is lent2024

Carmelite Spirituality

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Are you searching for something more? Wanting to go deeper in your faith? Were you aware that lay people can be Carmelites?

This part of the order is called the Third Order. Members, though not in Religious Life, choose to live out their baptismal commitment according to the spirit of the Carmelite Order. Third Order Members are brothers and sisters in the Carmelite Family and share in the same call to holiness and in the same mission of the Carmelite Order as the priests and nuns! The Third Order influences the spirit and the structure of the entire Carmelite family.

The call to Carmel is a vocation. It includes friars, monks, religious sisters, cloistered nuns and lay people. Third Order Lay Carmelites are not a prayer or social group. It is a vocation ... a call to live a way of life that is dedicated to prayer, service, and community. For those who are called to this way of life, it becomes a comfort, guide and beautiful source of spiritual strength as one is drawn into union with God. To become a Lay Carmelite, one must be at least 18 years old, a practicing Catholic in good standing and registered with a parish. You must also be searching for deeper spiritual guidance on your life journey.

Might you be called to live by the traditions and spirit of Carmel? We welcome you to learn more by attending a meeting. We meet the second Wednesday of the month in Crystal Lake. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!

Contact the director Marcie Girolamo

(815) 245-0537 | marciegirolamo4@gmail.com

Divine Mercy

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The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us and wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins. So that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

"Those who sincerely say 'Jesus, I trust in You' will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears."

"There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy - that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God." ~Pope John Paul II

Be at Peace

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Our parish patron saint, St Francis de Sales, spiritually composed this prayer. Fr Ryan reflects upon these spiritual and strengthening words often - and offers this prayer for your consideration and contemplation. Jesus is with us and count your blessings.

A BEAUTIFUL PRAYER BY ST FRANCIS DE SALES

Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise. God, whose very own you are, will deliver you from out of them. He has kept you hitherto, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will bury you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. he will either shield you from suffering, or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.

Join us for a Rosary to Our Lady of Fatima // August 13th

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Who is Our Lady of Fatima?

Our Lady of Fatima is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in connection with her apparitions to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. Our Lady of Fatima told the shepherd children to pray the rosary daily for the end of the war (World War I). Mary continued to appear once a month for 6 months to the three children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. In October of 1930, the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima approved the visions as “worthy of belief.” Our Lady of Fatima urgently desired for all of faithful to pray daily for the salvation of poor sinners, and for the whole world. That message from Our Mother Mary is a challenge – no matter where you are in your own personal prayer life – to go deeper, to pray often, and with greater fervor.

Join us for a Rosary to Our Lady of Fatima

Saturday, August 13th following the 8:30am Mass 

We will pray a rosary with the 5 prayers to Our Lady of Fatima. Prayers for Hope, Healing and an end to abortion in our country.