If you’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19, please consider coming back to the church. If reason for your absence is because you’ve become accustomed to staying away, please pray and reconsider rejoining us if you feel safe to do so. God loves you, and we do too, and we sure do miss all of our family.

When: Saturday, May 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of the church. Thank you for your support!

NINETEENTH ANNUAL DIOCESAN WIDE EUCHARISTIC ROSARY PROCESSION - Come Celebrate the year of St. Joseph at the nineteenth annual diocesan wide Eucharistic Rosary procession on Sunday, June 6th from 1 to 4 p.m. (rain or shine) at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, 99 King St., Northampton, MA. Guest Speaker: Most Reverend William D. Byrne, Bishop of Springfield. Talk by Bishop William D. Byrne: "The Rescue Mission" Confession Available Rosary Procession through downtown NorthHampton (1.8 miles). Transportation available for those unable to walk. Chaplet of Divine Mercy Adoration and Benediction Please Note: COVID Safety Protocols to be followed. For more information, contact George or Brenda at (413) 221-4372 or visit: www.eucharisticprocessionnorthampton.com

Preparing for the Holy Sacraments - If you have questions or if you would like to speak with someone about receiving the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation please call our parish office at 413-445-5789.

Calls for Communion for homebound parishioners have now resumed. It is carefully administered by a Minster of Communion who is fully vaccinated. Visits to the home will be brief and only and exclusively for administering the Holy Sacrament. Ministers will wear face masks, and sanitize their hands before and after administering communion. The communicant should wear a mask as long as it does not impact their health. Please call 413-445-5789 to schedule a visit.

It's not too late to purchase 20/20 ticket. Please call St. Joseph Rectory if you are interested in purchasing tickets 413-445-5789. Thank you for your support!

Our parish goal is $35,000. We’re almost there! Please considering donating to help us reach our goal. Send in your one-time contribution, or make a pledge using the donation card you receive in the mail, or donate online through www.diospringfield.org/aca or by calling: 413-452-0670. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you.

Reminder to our students, the Confirmation Class of 2021 mandatory meeting is on Sunday, May 2 at 5:30 at the St. Joseph’s Parish Center. Please be prompt. COVID-19 restrictions will be followed. Masks must be worn. Thank You ~ John Arasimowicz

I want to thank all of you who made our pasta and meatball dinner a success. I first thank the Knights of Columbus who cooked the meals, packaged them, delivered them to the cars of people who purchased meals and for their work at traffic control. The meals were delicious and the equally delicious cookies as dessert were icing on the cake. I thank the Ladies of St. Anne’s Guild for their hard work and great baking talents, which they generously shared by providing the cookies for this dinner, as well as the fish fry dinner. I also thank you the people who purchased these meals. We hope you enjoyed them. You made this dinner a success. Rich Brady GK

Please consider signing up to give your donations to our parish online. It is very easy to do. You can donate either with a credit card or a check and choose how much you would like to give and how often: weekly, monthly, semi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. You can go directly to the website at https://stjoepittsfield.weshareonline.org to sign up. We thank you for your generosity during these difficult times.

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER is Thursday , May 6. Several million people from different faiths are called to pray for the United States and its leaders.

Pope Francis recalled the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021. Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. Pope Francis notes how, “Every day, for over forty years, following Lauds [Morning Prayer]” he has “recited a prayer to Saint Joseph taken from a nineteenth-century French prayer book of the Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary. Pope Francis encourages all of us to pray: Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To you God entrusted his only Son; in you Mary placed her trust; with you Christ became man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen.

Love one another. The greatest commandment, the simplest commandment — and if you’ve ever loved anyone, you know it’s also the hardest. I’ve seen one or two of those cheesy Hallmark movies that are especially popular around the holidays. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl encounter a catastrophic roadblock to their relationship — they’re coaches of rival high school volleyball teams, or he runs a dog kennel and she works at a feline rescue, so it could never, ever work out, right? But sprinkle a little movie magic over the whole situation and boy and girl find what Hallmark tells us is true love. I could make a list of all the things that are inaccurate about these movies, and something I would put right near the top — maybe even above the sometimes-unbelievable storylines — is the idea that love is a feeling. See, I’m not sure if it’s accurate to call these movies love stories. Attraction stories, sure. But if you’ve ever forgiven someone who’s hurt you, nursed a dying parent, gotten up for an infant’s night feeding or let your kid have the last piece of cake, you know that real love is a verb. It’s something you do. And it is almost always a choice. Love one another. How often do we hear this? How often do we think about what it really means? How often do we take a moment to consider the action Jesus is asking us to take and the choice he is asking us to make?

Dear Parents, May God’s peace be with you: Coinciding with the celebration of Easter, the month of April is the National Child Abuse Prevention Month. As Bishop Byrne has said, “the Easter spirit-filled celebration of prevention is a reminder of the God given responsibility which is entrusted to every Catholic adult throughout the Diocese to join in the cause to create and maintain nurturing environments for the children God has entrusted to our care and protection.” In conjunction with an invitation from Bishop Byrne to all parishes to join this national effort to bring an increased awareness, the Diocesan Offices of Catholic Schools, Faith Formation and Safe Environment and Victim Assistance have developed a few resources to promote child safety in our schools and faith formation programs. We have developed age appropriate, grade specific lessons and activities to raise awareness about child safety and well being that will be delivered through our Catholic schools and religious education programs. These will be made available to every family through our programs, Diocesan social medial channels, as well as a designated area of the Diocese of Springfield website. In addition, on Wednesday, April 14th the Diocese of Springfield will be recognizing Child Abuse Prevention Month. A special flag raising ceremony and prayer service will take place to honor those who have suffered abuse and raise awareness for child abuse prevention. St. Michael’s Cathedral will fly the Children’s Memorial Flag throughout the remainder of the month to honor and recognize National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. We hope this event and the lessons prepared for our schools and programs will raise awareness of the role we play in providing a safe and loving environment for each child in our care. We hope the resources provided also encourage good conversations at home about child safety and well being. God Bless, Daniel Baillargeon, PhD, Superintendent of Catholic Schools

Pope Francis recalled the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021. Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. Pope Francis notes how, “Every day, for over forty years, following Lauds [Morning Prayer]” he has “recited a prayer to Saint Joseph taken from a nineteenth-century French prayer book of the Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary. Pope Francis encourages all of us to pray: Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To you God entrusted his only Son; in you Mary placed her trust; with you Christ became man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen.

Thank you for all who donated to the beautiful Easter flowers!

Thank you to the 147 parishioners who have donated or pledged $26,628. Our parish goal is $35,000. We’re almost there! Please considering donating to help us reach our goal.

20/20 TICKETS If you need 20/20 tickets, please call the rectory at 413-445-5789.

Take out dinner will be held at St. Joseph Parish Saturday, April 24, 2021. It includes meatballs, pasta, salad and dessert. The dinner is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Council #103. This year our dinners are dedicated to our brother Knight and head chef, Phil Janchuk. All meals must be pre-ordered and pre-paid at St. Joseph Rectory. Meals will be delivered to you at the St. Joseph Church parking lot. Pickup times will start at 4 p.m. and end at 6 p.m. When you arrive, kindly give the attendant your name and number of meals. Each dinner is $15.00. All proceeds will go to St. Joseph Parish.

Question: Where did the feast of Divine Mercy come from? Answer: If you were born well before the year 2000, you know the feast of Divine Mercy has not always been celebrated in the Church. In the early 1900s, a young Polish nun began receiving private revelations. Jesus appeared to her during her times of prayer, speaking a message of mercy and love for the world. She received a set of prayers — the Divine Mercy Chaplet — and the request to have a feast day established to remind the Church of the mercy of God. St. Faustina died in 1938, on the cusp of war and in the midst of one of the most violent centuries in the history of the world. Her story and her diaries began circulating in Poland and beyond. It quickly became apparent that this was a holy young women, and the cause for her canonization opened. In the year 2000, she was canonized by the first-ever Polish pope, St. John Paul II. On her canonization day, he established the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday, “a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind with experience in the years to come.”