St. Mary's Church of Pecatonica

Welcome to the website for St. Mary's Church of Pecatonica, the Roman Catholic church located in Pecatonica, Illinois, and covering portions of Winnebago and Stephenson Counties, including the municipalities of Pecatonica, Ridott (partially), Seward, and Winnebago.

PARENTS OF CCD STUDENTS ARE ASKED TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE CATECHISTS TO COORDINATE ON PROGRESS IN THE TEXTBOOKS, SO EVERYONE CAN BE CAUGHT UP AND READY TO RETURN TO CLASS WHEN THEY ARE PREPARED TO DO SO.

The members of the 2020 Purgatorial Society are now listed under a tab under "Liturgy."  These were the intentions noted on the All Souls Day envelopes, as well as on the envelopes for Christmas flowers. (If we misspelled any names, please let us know so we can correct them.)

Lent is that liturgical season of the Church year in which we seek to reform our lives by asking God to give us the grace to see what we need to change and to make those changes.  Change is hard, or at least uncomfortable, but like any living thing we need to change and grow so that we do not stagnate and die. The traditional lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and charitable deeds help us recognize our dependence on God for meeting all our true material and spiritual needs, and help us direct our efforts more to God's will.  Our most basic need is to be in right relationship with the one, true, all-holy God, for which we rely on the sacraments of the Church to assist us.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as Penance or Confession) will be available at the usual time of 4:45 to 5:15 PM on Saturdays, but also on Be Reconciled Day (Wednesday, March 24th) from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM.  Be Reconciled Day is a diocese-wide event, whereby all the parishes in the Rockford Diocese will have confessions available most of the day, so wherever one is that day (within the Rockford Diocese), he or she will know they can stop at any Catholic church and make a confession.  This makes it convenient to utilize this sacrament, which is something every Catholic should try to do during Lent to receive God's grace to reform their lives and make sure they are in a state of grace, especially in preparing to celebrate Easter.  Watch the bulletin and this website for additional times for confession.

Ash Wednesday (February 17th) and Good Friday (April 2nd) are days of fast and abstinence.  Fasting applies to those Catholics between the age of 18 and 59 (to the extent their health permits it), whereby they eat less (one full meal and up to two smaller meals which together are less than a full meal) and do not eat between meals.  (Water and medicine can be taken at any time.)  Abstinence applies to those Catholics at least 14 years of age (to the extent their health permits it) and refers to abstinence from meat and meat-based foods (like a meat gravy).  (Fish and other seafood is not considered meat for this purpose.)  Abstinence applies not only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but also on all the Fridays in Lent.

Some of the additional devotions we will employ at St. Mary's this Lent are:

1. Monday morning Masses at 8:15 AM
2. Thursday morning adoration of the Eucharist after the 8:15 AM Mass, concluding with benediction at 9:15 AM (not in Holy Week)
3. Friday morning Stations of the Cross after the 8:15 AM Mass (not in Holy Week)

At St. Mary's during Lent, at all Masses we will use the second memorial acclamation after the priest says (after the consecration), "The mystery of faith": "When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again."  This prepares us to recall the Lord's Resurrection at and after Easter, as we focus in Lent more on our Lord's suffering and death for our salvation.

Also during Lent, we will say the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel at the end of each Mass. This reminds us of our need for God's help (including through St. Michael) to fight temptations of Satan and other evil spirits who want to spiritually destroy us. While there are different translations of this prayer (which was composed by Pope Leo XIII after a disturbing dream, and was said after "Low Mass" in the Catholic Church between 1886 and 1964), for convenience we will use the translation found on page 47 of the little blue booklet entitled "The Catholic Devotional" found on the ledge at the south door to the church, as people exit after Mass.  If you are not familiar with this prayer, you will learn it hearing other people praying it at Mass.

May God help us have a meaningful and fruitful Lent, so that just as the weather will go from bitter to beautiful over the course of Lent, our souls will improve to better reflect the shining radiance of God's glory and love.  As St. Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is most revealed in a human being fully alive!"  May we become more fully alive, for God's glory and our joy and that of those around us, by seeking and cooperating with God's grace this season of Lent.

The Illinois Catholic Conference (the public policy and lobbying arm of the Catholic bishops of Illinois) asks us to contact our Illinois legislators and to express opposition to bills in the Illinois General Assembly (House and Senate) which would repeal the one remaining, major pro-life law in Illinois, i.e. the law that requires parents of minors to be notified that their child is seeking an abortion.  That law already includes various ways to legally avoid notifying parents (e.g., cases of parental abuse, allowing another relative to be notified instead of a parent, or by petitioning a judge to bypass the notification).  Repealing that law will allow anyone (including those who perpetrate sexual assaults on minors) to take the minor to get an abortion, without that minor's parents even being told that their daughter is pregnant.  Please visit the ICC website for more information and to send emails to your state representatives:

                                          www.ilcatholic.org/take-action/action-center

Please read Fr. Jaskierny's message about the appeal here.  We have reached our target.  Anything now donated to the Diocesan Appeal (formerly called the Diocesan Stewardship Appeal) until sometime in April, will come back to the parish dollar-for-dollar.  If you have not yet donated, please consider doing so if you are able.  Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you to everyone who has continued to send in envelopes. Feel free to continue to do so. The diocese will be ending the ability to use their online giving system to donate to the parish.  We will be getting an online giving solution accessible from our website, but that might not be up and running until sometime in 2021.  Thank you for your patience in this matter. 

Thank you for your generosity, which has allowed our parish to be financially sound despite the pandemic and its restrictions.