Posted on March 29, 2020 View all news
Today we enter into our ‘late’ Lenten period of Passiontide. During the first few weeks of Lent, we were particularly focused on our own conversion from sin and detachment from the world. In these last two weeks of Lent, we particularly focus on the passion and death of Our Lord, which is the whole reason as to why we must avoid sin and be attached only to Him. Our Lord has now nearly accomplished all that He has set out to, in order to redeem us. He is now hidden, spending His remaining days with his Apostles, friends, and Blessed Mother. I pray that we are counted among his friends, even during this difficult time!
During this time, I encourage you to read one, or all, of the Passion narratives from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. This is the time to consider exactly how much Our Lord loved us, desired to satisfy justice, and restore us to friendship with God. He suffered much for our sake, hopefully meditating upon this suffering causes us to love Him more, to follow Him more faithfully, and strive to be better Catholics. I also encourage you to work on your own family life by keeping routine, spending quality time together, and together striving to grow in some virtue you have wanted to for some time. So often we let our family life slip away by too much focus on technology and the problems of the world. While this situation is not ideal, use the good in it that you can!
If you are interested in a particularly good online Passiontide Retreat, you can follow along with Fr. Andrew from the Oratory-in-Formation in Washington D.C. The first session can be found on YouTube. His first talk is about what a retreat is in general. You can subsequently watch their YouTube Channel for further updates. A reminder that there are plenty of online resources for watching Mass and other Liturgical Rites. You can find some suggestions in a former update here.
Please be sure to check the parish webpage calendar for the hours that Church will be open this week, and when confession will be offered. You can find the calendar at this link: Google Calendar. This will be the most accurate and updated list, but please be sure to check daily in case something has changed. Please enter only through the side door of Church.
Please note that there is Holy Water and other materials available near the side door of Church. We also now have Holy Water bottles that can be purchased for $1 which simply covers the cost. Please drop this in the donation box under the high pulpit. You can also drop your Sunday collection envelopes for either Old St. Mary’s or Sacred Heart and/or other donations in there as well.
Finally, my sermon for this Passion Sunday can be found below. I pray that each of you has a blessed week and I look forward to the day when we can all be together again. Please pray for us. Know that you are each remembered in our daily prayer and Masses. God bless!
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