Reminder: Msgr. Henneberry hears Confessions in the church parking lot every Saturday from 3:00 to 3:45 pm.

The May 1 edition of The New Freeman is available at the link below.
http://www.dioceseofsaintjohn.org/News/TNF-05-01.aspx

Here is the prayer card for tonight’s Novena.
*Please note that the card has been updated from previous weeks.*

Holy Redeemer Parish is offering prayers for all those affected by workplace injuries or deaths, in recognition of the April 28 National Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace.

This recognition of the sacrifices of workers is especially poignant at this time of great demands on healthcare, agriculture, transport, and all essential workers, and in the wake of the mass shootings in Nova Scotia taking the lives of first responders and front-line workers.

Saint John’s monument to honour workers who have been killed or injured on the job is located at the Frank and Ella Hatheway Labour Exhibit Centre, Lily Lake Pavilion, Rockwood Park. The monument was created by Darren Byers and Fred Harrison, and unveiled at the place honouring labour advocate W. Frank Hatheway on April 28, 2011.

On this Third Sunday of Easter in 2009, Saints Arcangelo Tadini and Bernardo Tolomei were canonized for their courageous and self-sacrificial service to the needs of workers even in times of epidemics (Benedict XVI, Third Sunday of Easter Homily, 2009).

At this time, let us pray for workers in our community, for workers and migrant workers serving our community, that the dignity of work and the rights of workers be respected in justice and charity. Let us pray for workers who have been injured or killed due to unsafe working conditions. And, let us pray that workers’ families are supported by employers when workers are injured or killed on the job.

Msgr. Henneberry will hear Confessions in the church parking lot Today, Saturday, April 25, from 3:00 to 3:45 pm.

Here is the prayer card for tonight’s Novena.

The Chaplet of Mercy is recited with Rosary beads and prayers from the Diary of Saint Faustina. The Chaplet begins with the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles’ Creed, followed by the Eternal Father:
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

On each bead of each decade of the Rosary, pray:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

For each remaining decade, repeat the:
Eternal Father (on the Our Father bead of the Rosary decade), and
10 For the sake of His sorrowful Passion prayers (on the Hail Mary beads of the Rosary decade).

The Chaplet concludes with Holy God, repeated three times:
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Pope Saint John Paul II dedicated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday in the year 2000, upon the canonization of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. The Divine Mercy Sunday Gospel reading narrates Jesus’ Resurrection appearance to the fearful disciples locked in the upper room (John 20:19), and then again eight days later (John 20:26), the second Sunday of Easter. The Gospel relates Jesus’ sending the disciples in His peace, empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-23). Jesus entrusted to them the gift of forgiving sins, a gift flowing from His wounds, His pierced side, His Sacred Heart, in a wave of mercy poured out over all humanity (John Paul II, Divine Mercy Sunday Homily, 2001).

Sister Faustina was granted a vision of two rays of light coming from Jesus’ Sacred Heart, one representing the blood of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice and the mystery of the Eucharist, and the second representing the water of Baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3: 5; 4: 14).
“Jesus, I trust in you” is the accompanying prayer of devotion to Christ our merciful Redeemer.

Pope Saint John Paul II valued the spiritual experience of the humble religious Saint Faustina in establishing Divine Mercy Sunday, and “providence disposed that he should die precisely on the vigil of that day, in the hands of Divine Mercy” (Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli address, April 23, 2006). Pope Saint John Paul II was canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2014, by Pope Francis.

May we enter “ever more deeply into the mystery of Divine Mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it always loves” (Pope Francis, Divine Mercy Sunday Homily, 2014).