St. Mary Gate of Heaven Parish

Regina — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:31:37 +0000

Regina — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:24:40 +0000

Holy Week

Natalie Cruz — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:13:55 +0000

Join us this Holy Week, as we celebrate the mysteries of our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.

March 31^st/April 1^st
Palm Sunday
Mass at 5pm Saturday evening
Or
8:00am
9:30am
11:00am
12:30pm (Spanish) on Sunday

April 2^nd
Reconciliation Monday
Confessions in the church 3:00-9:00pm

April 5^th
Holy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper at 7:30pm (bilingual)

April 6^th
Good Friday
Way of the Cross starting at 12:00noon
Service of the Passion of our Lord at 3:00pm (Spanish)
Service of the Passion of our Lord at 7:30pm (English)
Service of the Last Seven Words and Passion of Mary at 9:30pm (Spanish)

April 7^th
Holy Saturday
Easter Vigil at 8:00pm (bilingual)

April 8^th
Easter Sunday
Mass of the Resurrection of Our Lord
8:00am
9:30am
11:00am
12:30pm (Spanish)

Ash Wednesday Schedule for Feb. 22, 2012

Raj Dianand — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:58:42 +0000

6:00AM     Prayer Service
8:45AM      Mass
10:30AM   Prayer Service
12 Noon     Mass
1:30PM     Prayer Service
3:00PM     Children’s Mass
6:00PM     Mass
7:30PM     Mass – Spanish

Celebration in Honor of Our Lady, La Virgen de Altagracia

Natalie Cruz — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:26:20 +0000

Our celebration in honor of Our Lady, La Virgen de la Altagracia, patron saint of the Dominican Republic, will begin with a rosary in her honor, on her feast day, January 21^st at 7:30pm in the church.

We will continue our celebration with Sunday mass on January 22^nd, at 12:30pm, and conclude with a cultural feast in the school auditorium.

Join us!

Celebration in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Natalie Cruz — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:46:33 +0000

We will begin our celebration on Sunday, December 11^th with a procession following the 12:30pm mass.

On December 12^th, we will have activities going throughout the day. The church will remain open all day. The planned schedule is as follows:

Monday, December 12^th

4:00am- Mañanitas, (traditional songs), will be sang by Mariachis

5:00am- Mañanitas, sang by the community, in front of the image of Our Lady

6:00am- Mexican-style breakfast served in the church basement

8:45am- Daily mass, in the church, in English

6:00pm- Prayer service

7:30pm- Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, followed by a Mexican dinner, and cultural activities

Join us!

Open to Jesus Christ

Regina — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:39:42 +0000

Que viva la Virgen del Cisne!

Fr. Hugh, SMM — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:14:28 +0000

Our Ecuadoran parishioners organized a very successful celebration of their Patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of La Virgen del Cisne. The celebration began with the reception and enthronement of the image of Our Lady during a vigil service in the church which was attended by about 150 people and which was followed by a simple Ecuadoran style supper in the church basement. Approximately 800 people attended the 12:30 PM Sunday Mass in honor of La Virgen del Cisne. At the conclusion of Mass, the congregation followed in procession as the image of Our Lady was carried to the auditorium where over 500 people gathered to continue the celebration by participating in cultural activities and sampling Ecuadoran foods.

Below are videos featuring two of the traditional Ecuadoran dances performed during the cultural activities in the auditorium:

Grupo Infantil Jesús del Gran Poder from Montfort Spirituality on Vimeo.

Grupo Juvenil de Danza Ecuatoriana from Montfort Spirituality on Vimeo.

Blessing of the September 11, 2001 Memorial Plaque

Fr. Hugh, SMM — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:09:23 +0000

This is the text of the prayer of blessing that was used at the 10:00 AM Mass on Sunday, September 11:

V Our help is in the name of the Lord
R Who made heaven and earth

Blessed are you, O Lord, God of mercy and Giver of all good gifts.
In Jesus your Son who gave his life for our salvation
you have given us a marvelous example of charity
and have called us to follow the great commandment
that we love one another with that very same love
with which he has first loved us.

Hear us, we pray,
and send down your blessing upon us
as we dedicate this memorial of the tragic loss of life
and the heroic self-sacrifice of September 11, 2001.

Grant us, O Lord,
that peace which the world cannot give
so that our hearts may be inspired to stand in the strength of the Gospel
against all that would threaten the dignity of human life.

Strengthen us, O Lord,
with a spirit of true generosity
so that when we are called upon in times of need
we may faithfully serve you in our care for our neighbors.

Bestow upon us, O Lord,
the sure and certain hope and consolation
that come from knowing that no power in this world
is so great or so terrible that it can separate us
from the immensity of your love which comes to us in Jesus Christ.

Receive into the peace of your Kingdom, O Lord,
the innocent whose lives were ended so abruptly by an act of terror
and those whose lives were so generously given in the work of saving others.

Comfort their families in their loss,
and bless us with your grace that our lives may know and communicate
the great and saving truth that through Jesus Christ your Son
we have won the victory over death and have received the promise
of a blessed inheritance of eternal joy in the light of your presence.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Nativity of Our Lady

Fr. Hugh, SMM — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:15:24 +0000

In honor of today’s celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin I am sharing a bit of work that I have been doing in attempting to reproduce from archival scans a large triptych style painting of the early life of Our Lady that once hung in our church on the wall where the large Triumph Cross presently hangs. Formerly this area was not used for the choir. There was an altar dedicated to St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, located there above which hung the painting which was a companion piece to the large painting of scenes from the life of St. Joseph that still adorns the other side of the church. At some point during the renovations of years passed the painting disappeared – we do not know if it had been badly damaged or had been donated to another parish. While doing some work in the archives of the Company of Mary (Montfort Missionaries) I ran into three high quality black and white photographs of the panels of the painting – one of each scene. I have been doing a bit of work trying to piece them together and level out the shades of gray in the images so they match in the hope of producing a reasonable facsimile of the original piece to share with our parishioners as at the present this is the closest we can some to being able to see this beautiful piece of our history.

Here are my results so far:

The first panel depicts Mary’s parents, Ss. Joachim and Anne, who had been childless, praying in their advanced years for the gift of a child. The third panel depicts the answer to their prayers which is the miraculous conception and birth of Mary, a birth through which God will later bless the entire world in Jesus her Son. The middle panel depicts Mary as a young girl, about the age of our First Communion children, being presented and received in the Temple at Jerusalem where she would live for a number of years being instructed in the ways of the Lord.