Click to hear Msgr. Mike deliver today's liturgy.

COVID-19 Updated diocesan directive Based on the current situation as well as the statements made today by Gov. Baker and the President, Bishop Mitchell Rozanski has issued these updated directives. 1/ All Masses and other activities are suspended in all parishes until further notice. I would strongly urge parishioners to view our televised Mass, the Chalice of Salvation, which airs in Berkshire County at 6 am Sunday on WXXA Fox23 Albany and elsewhere on WWLP 22News Sunday morning at 10 am. And there will be two live-streamed Masses, Saturday at 4 pm and Sunday at 10 am, via a link at WWW.stagnescc.com. 2/ The only exception for parish-based activities would be Take & Eat programs, which may continue at the discretion of the pastor. 3/All pastoral in-home and nursing home visits are to be discontinued unless the individual is in critical condition. 4/ Catholic schools will close for two weeks. 5/ In light of these circumstances, the planned ACA In-Pew Commitment Weekend will be rescheduled to weekend of April 18/19 2020. 6/ Working with risk management and environmental consultants, we are developing a comprehensive response plan to help guide us in the coming days, weeks, and months

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19), CCD has been cancelled until further notice. Additionally, the Ham and Bean dinner has been cancelled along with the Lasagna dinner during Holy Week. The Easter dinner has also been cancelled. We will continue to provide updates. God bless.

CATHOLIC APPEAL - "Our Faith, Our Future", the 2020 Annual Catholic Appeal continues to accept your donations and pledges. Your support funds ministries and service agencies to your neighbors in need. Thank you to those who have made a gift or a pledge. If you have not made a donation, please use the envelopes at Mass this weekend or go on line to http://diospringfield.org/aca/ and click on the secure link. Thank you.

ST. JOSEPH CEMETERY - Please remove all decorations by Wed., April 1st. New decorations are not allowed until Mother's Day, May 10th. Live flowers only, no artificial. Cemetery gates and Mausoleum will be open from 8 AM to 8 PM beginning May 1st.

TRADITIONAL BAKED HAM DINNER scheduled for March 28 has been cancelled. We hope to reschedule in the near future.

150TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR DIOCESE - Historical Facts: St. Michael’s Church opens in 1860. Fr. Michael Gallagher purchases a lot on the grounds of the Springfield Armory for $7,250 to construct St. Michael’s Church which he names after himself. Built at a cost of $75,000, it opens on Christmas Day 1861, amid the darkest days of the Civil War in the presence of the largest congregation of Catholics ever assembled in Springfield.

Operation Rice Bowls will be made available for your Lenten sacrifices.

Many tanks to all who helped at St. Joseph Fish Fry, the Knights of Columbus Council #103, Ladies of St. Anne, parishioners, friends and all who donated to help defray the costs to repair/replace St. Joseph Church's entrance granite slab.

SAVE THE DATE— March 21, 2020. Springfield Diocese is hosting something new– a conference for men, women and children all together-Catholic Life Conference. We invite you to come. If you have felt abandoned, alone, ostracized, confused or complacent in your faith journey by the world, your family or fellow Catholics, this conference is for you.

The annual St. Anthony thirteen Tuesday night Devotions will begin on March 10, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. in the South Chapel. All are welcome to gather for prayer to this beloved saint. A basket will be available for people to place their special intentions.

During Lent daily 12:10 p.m. Mass will be held in the main Church at St. Joseph.

Vespers and Video presentation will begin Sunday evenings at 6pm on March 1st and continue each Sunday through Lent. As in the past, a video presentation will follow immediately after the service in the North Chapel. Refreshments will be served.

Friday March 6, 2019, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM at St. Joseph Parish Center, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Council #103. Enjoy great dining and fellowship with parishioners, family and friends or "take out" is available after 5:30 PM. Donation: Adults $15.00, Children 5 to 12 years old $10.00. Limited tickets at the door, if available. Please Purchase tickets early at St. Joseph Rectory. All proceeds go to St. Joseph Church.

“For those curious about the pipe organ we have here at St. Joseph’s church, here is a little history about the organ and the builders who made our instrument. St. Joseph’s organ is an E&G.G. Hook, Opus 405, pipe organ, completed in 1868. It has two manuals (keyboards), 28 stops, and 26 ranks, and utilizes slider chests with a mechanical key action. It was built in the German organ building tradition. The Hook brothers, Elias (1805-1881) and George Greenleaf (1807-1880), were sons of a cabinet maker and entered the organ business by apprenticing under the organ builder, William Goodrich. The Hook brothers went on to begin their own organ firm in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1871 Frank Hastings joined the firm, and the firm became known as E&G.G. Hook and Hastings. In their era, the E &G.G. Hook, and, later, E&G.G. Hook and Hastings organ company were the elite organ builders in the United States, with their organs serving over 2,000 churches and cathedrals throughout the country. Their largest work is the organ at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston, which boasts 101 ranks over 3 manuals. Many Hook organs are still in use today, either in original condition, or with alterations over time.” For those parishioners interested in learning more about St. Joe’s organ, or may want to gather at the church for informational meetings, we hope to create an organ committee to discuss, among other things, an organ fund. This new committee, called “Friends of the Organ at St. Joseph’s Church”, or, simply, FOTO, will have its primary goal of establishing an organ fund to maintain the instrument with twice-yearly tunings, and other additional repairs that are needed; for example, the leather on the big, wooden pipes for the pedalboard which are in need of replacing, and the cost for such a procedure is quite high. Again, those interested in learning more, or want to be a part of the FOTO committee, should email their interests to our organist and choir director, Carl Bowlby, at: bowlbycarl@yahoo.com.

Dear friends in Christ: Ash Wednesday this year falls on February 26th. In my time here in the Diocese of Springfield, many priests have shared with me experiences of people returning to the practice of their Faith through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I thank you for being ministers of reconciliation and healing, particularly for those who have felt hurt by the Church in any way. The Lenten Season is a great reminder to us of our calling to reconcile and start anew in our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters. I pray for that time of grace for all of us ministering in the diocese of Springfield and am grateful for the efforts of scheduling Penance Services that inspire our people to make use of this sacrament. During Lent, Catholics who are between the ages of 18 and 59 undertake at a minimum two days of fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. To fast means to take just one full meal with two smaller meals and no eating between meals. Additionally, every Catholic 14 years and older is to make Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent meatless days — days on which no meat of any kind is eaten, days of abstinence. Ash Wednesday is a time for acts of penance and alms-giving, helping those who are less fortunate than ourselves. A visible sign of our Lenten practices comes on Ash Wednesday when the ashes mark a sign of the cross on our forehead to remind us that our frail human nature needs the saving power of Christ. The imposition of ashes, fasting and abstinence from meat are outward signs of the work we seek to do during Lent: to make our interior dispositions more of what Christ would have us be. Each of us is asked, as well, to undertake particular prayers, actions, alms giving, mortifications, and self-sacrifice to help us grow in our understanding of all God has done for us. A special undertaking can be the Rice Bowl program — a sacrifice by each of us for those who never have a full meal. May this Lent be for each of us a time of growth in our relationship with Christ and with others and may it be a time that we find ourselves more fully in concert with all that God calls us to be. With every best wish, Most Reverend Mitchell T. Rozanski Bishop of Springfield

A big thank you to all who took the name of a shut-in and sent a Valentine. Your kindness is very much appreciated.

Can you...will you... say “YES!” to God's call? Berkshire Medical Center is in need of dedicated Eucharistic Ministers to bring Holy Communion to Catholic patients and their families. It is truly an honor to bring the comfort of Jesus to those who are in the hospital – worried, anxious and unable to receive Him at Mass. If you are currently a Eucharistic Minister at your church and feel that you would like to help in this beautiful and gratifying ministry, please call the BMC Chaplain’s Office as soon as possible at: (413) 447-2251

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of abstinence from meat as well as days of fast, when only one full meal is allowed. On days of fast two other meatless meals may be taken according to one's needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. The other Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat. The obligation to abstain from meat begins at fourteen (14) years of age. The obligation to fast begins at eighteen (18) years of age and ends at fifty-nine (59) years of age. Although the faithful may excuse themselves for a just cause from these laws of fast and abstinence, there is an obligation to substitute another penance and no Catholic should lightly excuse themselves from this obligation in the Lenten season.

Ash Wednesday February 26, 2020, Mass at St. Joseph 12:10 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.