NEAR: Weekly Sidewalk Prayer Vigil for the Protection of the Preborn
The weekly prayer vigil continues on the sidewalk outside of Maine Family Planning on Waldo Avenue. When? Every Friday from 9-10am. If you are not available during this hour, other times can be adjusted to fit your schedule. WE NEED YOU! As always, if you are just not able to join in due to your work/life schedule, please join in prayer from wherever you are. For more information, please contact Edward Jones at mgtdocean@gmail.com

NEAR:  WE NEED YOU! The season of Lent is soon upon us, and with it come 40 Days for Life campaigns across the nation. Belfast is now on the 40 Days for Life map. Yes, the prayer vigil is expanding into a 40 Days for Life campaign during the upcoming Lenten season, and we need you to support this effort in prayer on the sidewalk in front of Maine Family Planning, diagonally across from Belfast Area High School. Please open your hearts and pray about what He calls you to do regarding abortion. Our Lord may be calling you to join in this prayer effort. The campaign begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5, and ends on Good Friday, April 18. You can sign up for an hour or more of prayer (and you will be accompanied by at least one other prayer warrior who has attended the vigil before - YOU WILL NOT BE ALONE). Prayer times we are hoping to fill are M-T-W-F from 9am - noon. Please contact Paulette Spera using her contact information at the end of the webpage. Thank you! 40 Days  Belfast, ME 

ENDING: Baby Bottle Drive to Support Zoe
Baby bottles for Zoe's Fluorish Campaign are due back to your church the weekend of February 22-23. Kindly return your bottle to the bin from which you signed them out. If you were not able to take a bottle because they were all gone when you checked the bin, you can still donate by make a check out to Zoe, A Women's Center and leaving it in the offertory basket the weekend of 2/22-23. Thank you so much for all your efforts in support of Zoe; Zoe counts on it in order to deliver life-given and lifesaving care to parents in the Midcoast. You can learn more about the center by clicking the link below:

Watch an introductory video that explains the start of the 40 Days for Life movement in the first video below, then an interview with co-founder Shawn Carney in the second. The 3rd video gives information about medication abortion, which is the type we know for sure is despensed at Maine Family Planning in Belfast, down the street from our local high school. If you are not familiar with what medication abortion is and the regulations - or lack thereof - around it, not to mention its dangerous and damaging effects on women, we encourage you to watch this video. 

Last October, during Respect Life Month, we held an event after a Sunday Mass at StF and watched a documentary about French geneticist, pediatrician, and first president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (under Saint Pope Jean-Paul II), Dr. Jerome Lejeune. Dr. Lejeune's cause for canonization was opened in 2007 by the Catholic Church and furthered by Pope Francis in 2021 when the Holy Father accorded him the title Venerable in recognition of Dr. Lejeune's "heroic virtues." You can access the full 58-minute documentary below. It is a poignant and riveting story of a life lived for others. 

Venerable Jerome Lejeune, pray for us.

For general ministry information, please contact any of the following parishioners:

• Maureen Rispoli, St. Francis: momeuse89@gmail.com

• Paulette Spera, Our Lady of Good Hope: Paulette.Spera@gmail.com

• Russell Spera, Our Lady of Good Hope: russell.spera@gmail.com

• Ann Norman, St. Bernard:  ranorman18@gmail.com

For information about the weekly prayer vigil for life:

• Edward Jones, St. Francis: mgtdOcean@gmail.com