Welcome -- or welcome back --to Connecticut College

"I feel the earth move under my feet; I feel the sky tumbling down..." Carole King's lyric has certainly been the theme song for recent events ... other than your arrival on campus, that is. An earthquake and a tropical storm both announced and impeded your arrival.

The campus has seen significant changes in paving and parking. The Science Center construction is underway and, although I haven't seen them myself, I heard the food lines in Harris have been reorganized. Through all of this the celebration about the college's Centennial continues as a leitmotif.

There are messages in all this, I'm sure. Flexibility, about which we have perhaps heard too much, is really indispensible as a habit and even desirable as a character trait. Change, while it is inevitable, may be both an advantage or a disadvantage ... or even both at the same time. And there is really nothing to get you back on your feet like a good celebration.

The schedule of weekly Masses for the fall semester has been somewhat revised to accommodate the changes wrought by the delayed opening of the college. This weekend there will be no Mass on Saturday evening (September 3rd) at 5 but there will be a Mass on Sunday morning, September 4th, at 10:30 a.m. in the Harkness Chapel. I hope you will plan to attend and meet new friends and renew old friendships. I've got a great story I can't wait to tell you about two students who met at this Mass in their first year at Conn.

Beginning next Saturday, September 10th, Mass will return to its usual time 5 p.m. every Saturday during the fall semester.

Despite meteorological appearances to the contrary, it was a "fair wind" that brought you to a great place to learn and seek. Please make the Catholic Community here at Conn a resource in that enterprise. Come and invite your friends to join you for the Vigil Masses on Saturdays at 5 and for community suppers. (The first is Saturday the 17th in the Hood Dining Room in Blaustein after Mass.) Join the choir. Become a Eucharistic Minister or Lector. Catch up on the sacraments by preparing for First Communion or Confirmation. Stop by to visit me for a chat at the chapel or invite me to dinner chez Harris. It won't cost you anything but the time. Visit our website, www.conncatholics.com, for the latest on the Catholic Community's activities and events.

I look forward to getting to know you better. I hope to offer you an opportunity to get to know more about the Church and your faith as a resource to the many important choices you make every week. And I hope this will be a spectacular Centennial semester for us all.

Devotedly Yours in Christ,

Fr. Larry

Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Beyond!

Here we are in the final days of the Spring semester and it really appears that the long Winter is over and gone. There are still a number of events in the Catholic Community's calendar for the semester. Some of them are corrections of the information I gave you in the letter at the beginning of the semester.

On April 16th at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel we will observe Palm Sunday and begin Holy Week with Bishop Michael Cote, the local Bishop. A reception will follow Mass so you can meet him.

On Wednesdsay April 20th there will be a Penance Service in the Chapel at 5 pm.

A Good Friday Service will be held on April 22 at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

There will be no Mass on Saturday, April 23 but on Sunday, April 24, at 5 pm we will celebrate the Mass of Easter in Harkness Chapel. A reception will follow Mass in the Chapel Library.

Our usual schedule of Vigil Masses on Saturday evenings at 5 pm will continue until the weekend before Commencement.

On May 8th at noon we will gather for Mass in Buck Lodge to celebrate our graduating seniors and to round out Floralia weekend. Brunch will follow Mass. Bring your friends.

On Commencement weekend teh Saturday night Mass will take place at 5:30 pm.

You can always stay in touch at http://www.conncatholics.com/

I hope to see you Saturday or on some of the services of Holy Week or some time in the remaining weeks of the semester.

Devotedly Yours,

Fr. Larry

Mardi Gras & Ash WednesdayA Message From Fr. Larry

Tuesday is Mardi Gras! Bring in the clowns! Fat Tuesday (loose translation) will give way to Ash Wednesday (no translation needed). Lent, a very late Lent, will begin and will help us to prepare for the celebration of Easter and the renewal of our Baptismal Promises.

We are always in need of renewal and Lent is always about Baptism. Our Baptism into the Risen Christ is how it all starts for all Christians. The wild ride of our spiritual life begins in the waters of Baptism. No matter how long ago ours actually was, it is refreshed at Easter with the renewal of Baptismal promises and the sprinkling with Easter water.

Some students always ask about fast and abstaining from meat. These days Lent isn’t the grueling ordeal your grandparents knew. Here’s the short course on a Catholic observance of Lent.

Voluntary acts which take the focus off of ourselves and place it on the needs of others are a good way to enter into the spirit of the season.

Still, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence from meat. There is a limit of one full meal on these days for all between the ages of 18 and 59 inclusive. I doubt this will induce any of you to long for the age of 60. ‘Though, trust me, it’ll come soon enough. Why do you think they call it “Fast”?

So, after we’re 14 we abstain totally from meat on all the Fridays of Lent. Now you know where Carnivale gets its name. Bye-bye Meat! Until fairly recently that applied to the whole of Lent.

After we receive First Communion, we Catholics are bound by the obligation of receiving Holy Communion at least once a year. This is called the Easter Duty. The prescribed time for fulfilling the Easter duty extends: from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, in the United States. Catholics are also bound to confess serious (mortal) sins at least once a year, but this is not limited to the Lenten /Easter Season.

The rules are pretty minimalistic but they emphasize the most important qualities of our lives: other-centeredness, self-control, repentance for our sins and union with Christ in the Eucharist. If we were told we had to breathe every 3 minutes we would probably go for a more frequent pattern of breathing.

Before we go blithely into Lent, let’s celebrate Mardi Gras with Pizzas from Mr. G’s and a Piñata full of candy in the Chapel library after the 5 pm Mass this Saturday March 5th.

On Wednesday, March 9th, there will be Mass and the distribution of ashes at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

Then we’re off to Spring Break! When you return we will celebrate Mass on the Wednesdays of Lent in addition to the usual Saturday Vigil Masses all at 5 pm.

On April 16th we will observe Palm Sunday and begin Holy Week with Bishop Michael Cote, the local Bishop. A reception will follow Mass so you can meet him.

On Wednesday April 20th there will be a Penance Service in the Chapel at 5 pm.

A Good Friday Service will be held on April 22nd at 3 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

And on Sunday, April 24, at 11 am we will celebrate the Mass of Easter in Harkness Chapel. A breakfast will follow Mass in the Chapel Library.

I’ll remind you again about all the events after Break but I just wanted to give you a “heads up” on all these events for your calendars. You can always stay in touch at http://www.conncatholics.com/

I hope to see you Saturday or on Ash Wednesday.

Devotedly Yours,

Fr. Larry