Welcome to Fourteen Holy Helpers!
Easter Placek and Breads Sale
On Palm Sunday Weekend, April 1st (3-6 p.m.) and 2nd (8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) the Sodality of Our Lady here at Fourteen Holy Helpers is sponsoring its annual Easter Placek and Homemade Breads Sale. Stop over in Monsignor Ebner Parish Hall for your choice of either Buttermilk or Yeast Placek or a homemade Cinnamon, Blueberry, or Banana flavored bread. There will be a limited amount of placeks and breads baked so don’t wait to place your order. More details on the sale along with links to order online in advance are available at … Placek Sale LINK.
Make sure that you stop by the Hall during the sale any of these homemade delicious goodies or to purchase some of the Easter decorations that will be on hand. Addditionally, you will be able to purchase raffle chances for Easter items or Share–of-the-Wealth Tickets when you pick up your baked goods.
At 1:00 pm on April 2nd, we’ll be drawing the $100 Early Bird Winner for our Magical May Sweepstakes. Stop by to see if you’re a winner!
Our Magical May Sweepstakes concludes on Sunday, May 21st when we draw the 14 prizes totaling $6,000 with a grand prize of $3,000. Parisioners should have received two books of six tickets in the mail. To get in for the Early Bird Drawing, drop tickets off to the rectory by 4:00 p.m., Thursday, March 30th. Otherwise bring your tickets to the sale.
Holy Week Schedule
Thursday, April 6th, Holy Thursday
- Morning Prayer, 9am in the Church followed by an Agape Breakfast in the Hall. There is not a daily Mass.
- Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 7pm. The Church will be open until 11pm for private prayer. There will not be a Seven Churches bus tour this year.
Friday, April 7th, Good Friday
- Morning Prayer, 9am. There is not a daily Mass.
- Good Friday Solemn Service of the Lord’s Passion, 3pm.
- Seven Last Words of Christ, 7pm.
Saturday, April 8th, Holy Saturday
- Morning Prayer, 9am. There is not a daily Mass.
- Blessing of Baskets, 12pm in the Hall.
- Easter Vigil, 8pm.
Sunday, April 9th, Easter Sunday
- Mass Times: 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am and 12pm.
*Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, ushers/greeters, altar servers: There are sign up sheets in the Sacristy for the above Masses and services.
LENT 2023
… Abstinence All Catholics who have reached their 14th birthday are bound to abstain totally from meat on the following days: Ash Wednesday, all Fridays of Lent and Good Friday.
… Fasting All Catholics between their 18th and 59th birthdays are also bound to observe the Law of Fast on the following days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This practice involves limiting oneself to a single full meal and avoiding food between meals. Light sustenance may be taken on two other occasions in the course of the day .
Road to Renewal
All of the five parishes in our Road to Renewal family of parishes is being asked to provide parishioners who will represent each parish in regard to the pillars of parish life. There are 6 Church Pillars: Liturgy, Spiritual Life, Forming Disciples, OutReach / InReach, Stewardship & Administration. These are the 6 key areas of the Church that require constant planning, monitoring and evaluation within each Family of Parishes and will create the Family Action Plan.
As we will soon begin the Road to Renewal process, our parish will need 6 to 12 people to represent the parish in the different pillar meetings with 1 or 2 people per pillar group.
Please consider stepping forward to represent 14 Holy Helpers in one of the pillar groups and help shape the creation of our Parish Family Action Plan. Additional information on the renewal program is available on this website at … Road to Renewal LINK. Contact the Rectory with any specific questions and express your interest in representing our parish … call at 716-674-2374 during business hours or email to Rectory @14hh.org.
Worldwide Catholic Synod
These results have been shared with Bishop Mike and Diocesan Leadership for their use in guiding our Diocese. Bishop Mike has expressed his hope that Synodal practices will continue in our Diocese. That report along with other supporting materials is now available for you to read at www.buffalodiocese.org/synod.
What do you think about the future of our Church?
Pope Francis requested that the worldwide Church hold Listening Sessions in each Diocese. Here in Buffalo over 800
people participated in 35 Sessions. During the last 5 months the Synod team from our Diocese conducted 35 Listening Sessions and created a 10-page report which was submitted to the USCCB.
Reports from Dioceses across the country will be combined and submitted to Rome for use in the Synod of Bishops in 2023. They will develop a document for our worldwide Catholic Church. May the Holy Spirit continue to guide our Synodal journey.
Chapel up High
A Eucharistic chapel has been organized at 14 Holy Helpers to make it easy for you to be in the presence of our risen Lord while maintaining social distancing precautions. A consecrated Eucharist has been placed in a monstrance in the sun room on the second floor of the Rectory. This new chapel is available for you to stop by in the parking lot to spend
a little time with Jesus and say a prayer in the privacy and safety of your car. This chapel will be lit for easy viewing so you may stop by the parking lot at any time during the day or night. There will be no inside access, so use your car, and PLEASE respect social distancing norms to help stop the spread of the virus.
Prayer Line
Fr. David has set up a Prayer Line phone number … (716) 675-2592 … accessible 24 hours per day. He records a few prayers and gives us a few thoughts to help us deal with these difficult times. The prayers are periodically changed so call for the new prayer whenever you need to “pray with a friend”.
Support those who Support Us
We have been blessed to enjoy the support of our local business community over the past year. They have provided our parish, and the events and services we produce, with money, products, and services donations. Through their generous donations we have been able to generate needed revenue to work toward our mission and serve the local community.
Due to the recent coronavirus health crisis, many businesses have been forced to either temporarily close or operate in a restricted environment. Even those not as directly impacted have had to operate in a new world of social distancing, working environment cleansings, or managing a remote work force. Our supporting businesses stood up to help 14 Holy Helpers when we called … Businesses that Support 14 Holy Helpers LINK. Please consider supporting them with your patronage when you are in need of the goods or services that they provide to the community. Thank them and let them know that 14 Holy Helpers appreciates their support.
On-Line Giving
On-line giving to 14 Holy Helpers is processed through a program managed by Vanco Payment Solutions. Vanco is a large on-line payment processor for faith based organizations and is used by a number of parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo. As a PCI Level 1 compliant service provider they are dedicated to protecting the security and privacy of our donors.
Making your payments on-line is easy. You can access our on-line system by clicking the blue Offering button found in the right hand column of our Home Page (see button below). You have the option to set up a donor profile to save your information for multiple donations … or make a one time donation without setting up a profile. Donations can be made via credit card or ACH withdrawal from a checking or savings account.
The system is available now. Call the Parish Business Manager, Rick Donovan, at the Rectory (716) 674-2374 with any questions.
Parish Pictorials
We have started to collect the history of our parish life through photographs. If you have any pictures that you would like to share with us please contact our Webteam. Our current collection can be seen at the following link … 14 HH Pictorial.
Parish E-Mail List Sign up for the Parish Email List. Through our emails you’ll get information and reminders about parish news and life delivered right to your in-box. You can subscribe at the following link … Subscribe