Dear Friends, 
Welcome to the St. James parish web site! There are many options you may look at in regard to our parish community and we are proud and happy to let you see what we are all about. As we move into the New Year (and hopefully into Spring), we will be focusing on the great season of grace called Lent! There are many opportunities for you to strengthen your own faith life here at St. James. The most traditional forms of Lenten practices are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Every day we will celebrate the Eucharist at 7:30am in the morning - to which you are all invited. We have Eucharistic Adoration on Thursdays and Stations of the Cross on Fridays. We also have Small Christian Communities that gather for these 6 weeks of Lent to read and reflect on the scriptures. We are encouraging all of our people to study a book during this Holy season entitled, “A Well-Built Faith” by Joe Paprocki .You may purchase this book at the Manna table, after any of our weekend Masses. Also available to all our people is “the Little Black Book”, a 40-day Lenten resource that will enhance this season of grace for you as you are encouraged to read and reflect on the great messages during this Lenten season. These books are free of charge and will be distributed on the weekend of February 20th and 21st. If you miss this opportunity you may call the parish office to see if there are any books left. We usually run out of them the weekend they are distributed. The Little Books are a great way for us to develop a sense of prayerfulness in Lent. As far as fasting goes, we offer an opportunity to join us for a Lenten soup supper every Friday evening in the church basement. The soups are made by our high school students and there is a free will offering you can make for your supper that will help teens do mission work during the summer. Please feel free to join us. Following the soup suppers we offer various forms of the Stations of the Cross which again are listed in detail on this site. There are also many different ways you may choose to work at almsgiving this year. Our parish will be working on a project called “Solidarity Bridge.” It is a collection we will be gathering during these 6 weeks of Lent to bring medical teams to the people of Bolivia who are in great need. More information is again located on this site. These are just some of the opportunities you may enjoy and participate in during this Lenten season.
We will be gathering together at the end of the 6 weeks to celebrate the three holiest days of our Church year. We call them the “Triduum” - Holy Thursday to Good Friday, Good Friday to Holy Saturday, and Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday. These are 3 consecutive “days”, but “one continuing liturgy”, and are focused on the paschal mystery of Jesus – his dying and rising - and all of you are most encouraged to join us on April 1, 2, 3 & 4 for this great experience. All our evening services start at 7:30pm. On Holy Thursday we will begin the celebration with a focus on Jesus’ call to service by offering the foot washing experience he shared with his friends on the night before he died. Following the washing of feet, we will focus on the great gift of the Eucharist which was given to us at the Last Supper. At the end of the Mass we will solemnly bring the Eucharist to the church where we will have an opportunity to spend quiet time until midnight. On Good Friday at 7:30pm we will gather in the church to celebrate the passion and death of Jesus through word and symbol. On Holy Saturday we will gather once again in the parish center to begin the solemn Easter Vigil which is the first Mass of Easter. 5 adults will be baptized at this beautiful service and 17 people will be professed as Catholics, complete their Easter sacraments of Communion and Confirmation, and be welcomed into the Catholic community. It is the holiest and most sacred liturgy of the whole church year and all are invited and welcome to attend. On Easter Sunday, our Mass schedule is as follows: Church: 8:00am, 10:00am, and 12:00Noon; Parish Center: 10:00am and 12:00Noon.
We will celebrate the Easter season for several weeks and focus on the great resurrection event as we gear up for a very important happening here at St. James. On April 25, 26, and 27, we will present our Parish Family Mission, an experience for adults and children . This major event is being conducted by the Sparough Family which consists of 2 brothers (1 a priest) and 2 sisters who will be engaging and entertaining us with a variety of prayers and practices to help all our families get ready for First Communion weekend on May 1st. More information on this great family event can also be found on this web site.
All in all, we have a lot of activities here in the Spring with our Lent and Easter celebrations. I have just touched on a few and I hope that all of you will take some time to consider participating in many of them. Details about all these events are on this site – good reading!