Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has resume, and is held every Friday following the 8:30am Mass until 10am in our chapel…
SUNDAY MASSES & WEEKDAY MASSES
Sunday Masses & Weekday Masses
SATURDAY 5:00 p.m.
SUNDAY 10:00 a.m.
Tuesday to Friday at 8:30a.m. in the chapel
(Friday adoration will follow 8:30am Mass until 9:30am)
Please arrive in time for the start of Mass.
We look forward to seeing you at Mass.
If you are new to our parish and plan to make us your spiritual home regularly. Please fill out a blue registration form located at the church entrances. You can complete and return by collection plate, drop off in our mailbox or hand it to Fr. Joe and introduce yourself.
When looking for any sacramental celebrations such as baptisms, first holy communion, confirmation or weddings, we check our parish records for your registration. Please note that if you do not live in our geographical boundaries (unless you are registered), we will ask you to obtain a sacramental permission form from your home parish. Many parishes have one priest to provide ministries for their members while other parishes depending on the number of registered families may have more than one priest to assist.
If you are looking for a personal reference, you must be a registered member of the parish. It’s always good to volunteer at the parish so that Fr. Joe can get to know you. There are many ways you can assist without a big time commitment.
POPE FRANCIS 2025 +
Today we are experiencing joy, mixed with sorrow. Our joy rests in the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, three days after his death on the cross - a death he died to give us life. We are an Easter people. This means that our faith and therefore our lives, are built on the foundation that God loves us so much, He Himself became fully human, so that He might understand humanity. And that included experiencing our pain, so that He could give us the chance to end suffering once and for all, opening for us the gates of heaven. We are called to live in such a way that we show our gratitude to God for this gift, every single day.
At the same time, our joy is tinged with sorrow. Yesterday, April 21st, our Holy Father, Pope Francis closed his eyes on his earthly life and returned to the Father. This is a time of great sorrow because we are a flock that has lost its earthly shepherd. Our Holy Father was one who demonstrated gratitude to God and lived the Gospel. Pope Francis led the Catholic Church in true faith, humility, and love. He focussed on encounter, not judgement. Compassion, not condemnation. He emphasized dialogue.
Pope Francis taught us that “there is only one time that we are allowed to look down upon another - when we are offering to help them get back up." A simple but powerful image that demonstrates his way of living out the teachings of Jesus.
We do not draw people to a relationship with Christ by telling others how wrong they are, and how right we are. Instead, we show them a light and love that is so wonderful that they want with all their hearts, to know the source of it. This was the mission of Pope Francis - to draw the world toward the love and warmth of the Triune God.
So today, as Easter people who place our hope in the resurrection and everlasting life, let us pray in gratitude for that gift, and that Pope Francis will enter those gates of eternal love and life.
Lord, the resurrection of Your Son has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as Easter people,
always answering the call
to live in gratitude for the gift of life.
Give us the courage of Pope Francis -
to boldly proclaim the Gospel
by being open to encounter, compassion, and dialogue.
Welcome your servant Pope Francis
back to the loving arms of the Father in Heaven.
Grant him eternal rest,
and may your loving arms of comfort
wrap around those in the world who feel this loss so deeply.
We ask this in the name of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Our Lady of Comfort, pray for us.
HOSPITALITY SOCIALS
FOR YOUR INFORMATION OUR COFFEE & TREAT MEETS ARE…
January 25th / 26th, 2025
May 10th / 11th, 2025 (Celebrating Fr. Joe Durkacz’s 40th anniversary as a Diocesan priest) and all Mother’s of our parish
September 20th / 21st, 2025
November 29th / 30th, 2025
All our hospitality socials follow our Saturday 5pm & Sunday 10am Masses in our parish hall.These socials are complimentary and our thanks for having you members of our parish.
HOSPITALITY SOCIAL - Jan. 25/26, 2025 Chinese New Year
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION 2025
On Sunday April 6th 2025 the students of Sts. Peter & Paul School as well as St. Michael School received the Holy Eucharist for the first time.
“God gives parents all the grace they need to raise their children to know and love Him.”
The Eucharist is our family meal. In our individual families, we come together out of the common need to be nourished. Family meals bring us together and give us a collective identity. As a Church, we are nourished by Christ himself. Through our Communion with Jesus and with one another, we are formed as the Body of Christ.
May God bless you as you lead your little one into communion with Him. We pray that you continue to nourish the family by attending Mass on a regular basis.
CONFIRMATION 2025
On Sunday, March 30th, 2025 we celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with our students of Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Elementary School as well as St. Michael Catholic Elementary School. His Excellency, Bishop Crosby of the Diocese of Hamilton was our presider and we thank him for his time and guidance through his homily. Many thanks to the teachers, staff and Fr. Joe Durkacz for preparing these students for this special sacrament.
It was lovely to see all our confirmandi in their red robes.
May the Holy Spirit be with them always +
PRE-AUTHORIZED GIVING (EFT)
Please consider supporting the Parish!
Sts. Peter & Paul parish community is able to thrive because of your generosity!
Donations can be made at Mass or by dropping off your envelopes at the Office rectory mail box.
However please consider registering for the PRE-AUTHORIZED GIVING PLAN (EFT - Electronic Fund Transfer) for your Church contributions.
EFT helps especially during these uncertain pandemic times by:
eliminating any chance of COVID-19 transmission on paper/money for our counters
saving the expense of purchasing boxes of contribution envelopes (approx. $1 500 / year)
enabling your support to the parish to be continued, allowing the parish's re-occurring maintenance expenses to be paid, even if you are not present on the weekend or if mass is cancelled
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED GENEROSITY.
Please contact the office if you require assistance. We require quite a few parishioners to use this method since the banking fees are quite high. Please consider using this method of donating.
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
We celebrate the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29th.
Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith. ~Saint Augustine of Hippo
June 29: Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles—Solemnity
Simon was born in Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee. He and his brother Andrew were fishermen, accepting Jesus’ invitation to become His first disciples and “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). John’s Gospel has Andrew following Jesus first and bringing Simon to Him. Jesus tells Simon, “‘You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas (which is translated Peter)” (John 1:42). In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter when He said to him, “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18–19).
Peter emerged as the Church’s central leader after Pentecost. For a decade in Jerusalem, he preached, performed miracles, and converted many. He then traveled to Rome, established the Church there, and became its first bishop. Around AD 64, he was martyred during Emperor Nero’s persecutions. Tradition says that Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he did not deem himself worthy to die the same way that Jesus died. His tomb lies under the main altar of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Saul was a Roman citizen born in Tarsus, modern-day Turkey. As a young man, he studied at the rabbi Gamaliel’s school in Jerusalem. After Jesus’ ascension, Saul fiercely persecuted the early Church, in part responsible for the proto-martyr Stephen’s death (Acts 7:58). While traveling to Damascus to persecute Christians, Paul was knocked to the ground and struck blind. He heard Jesus say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus directed Saul to a disciple named Ananias who baptized him. Saul spent three years in intense prayer and study, eventually returning to Jerusalem where Barnabas testified to the truth of Paul’s conversion to the other disciples.
Using his Roman name, Paul spent ten years as a missionary throughout the Mediterranean. Imprisoned in Jerusalem for a couple of years, he was sent to Rome for trial and met up with Saint Peter. According to tradition, Paul was beheaded just outside the city. When his head fell, it bounced three times, giving rise to three springs of water, marked today by the Abbey of the Three Fountains.
Saints Peter and Paul are the Church’s foundational pillars. Peter represents the Church’s stability and the office of the Vicar of Christ. Paul represents the Church’s mission of evangelization and is the Church’s first theologian for his epistles that expound on the Gospels. One tradition holds that both died on June 29, making them twin martyrs and reminding us that as the Church remains grounded in the ancient Truth, it must grow and flower in its understanding of the mysteries of faith.
Saints Peter and Paul, you responded to Christ’s call with total abandonment to His holy will. Through you, the Church was founded and began to grow. Please pray that I will fully devote myself to the ongoing mission of the Church, so that God can use me according to His holy will. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
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