On Ash Wednesday, the reading from the Gospel of Matthew, presents us with the three pillars of Lent: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. We are reminded by Jesus himself that any good deeds, prayer and fasting that we do ought to be performed/completed in a quiet, unassuming manner…not done for show or praise. Go to the Busted Halo Fast/Pray/Give calendar at lent.bustedhalo.com to find daily suggestions (the Daily Jolt and MicroChallenge) on how to live the Lenten pillars.
Beginning on Thursday evening February 26, and running through the month of March (March 5, 12, 19 and 26), we will celebrate Lenten Evening Prayer and the Sacrament of Reconciliation during the regularly scheduled hour of Eucharistic Adoration (6:30 to 7:30pm). The Stations of the Cross will be celebrated on Friday evenings at 7:00pm, beginning on February 20 and ending on March 27. Come to the Chapel (lower church) on Thursday and Friday evenings, enhancing your Lenten experience and meeting Jesus in prayer, sacrament, and community!
This year, on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent, we will hear gospel readings from the Gospel of St. John that are linked to the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA). The readings feature Jesus and the Samaritan women (March 8), Jesus’ curing of the man born blind (March 15), and Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead (March 22). These readings help those who are seeking to become fully initiated members of the Catholic Church (see OCIA explanation below) and those of us who already practice the Catholic faith, to become more aware of who we are as people on a journey of faith and who Jesus is. Through the experiences of the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus and his family, we come face to face with our need for God and God’s response to this need. You can always prepare for any particular Sunday’s readings at iturgy.slu.edu.
The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) is a process of education in the faith (catechesis) and liturgical rituals that supports non-Christians and Christian believers as well, in their journey to become fully initiated members of the Catholic Church. This Easter, our parish is welcoming several non-Catholic Christians into the Church and helping a number of others who were baptized as Catholics to complete their initiation into the Catholic faith by preparing them to receive the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation. Nearly a dozen parishioners have joined the OCIA catechetical team to share both information about the Catholic faith and stories about their own faith with the candidates. In order to inform and involve the members of the parish in our OCIA process, we celebrated the Rite of Welcoming the Candidates during an Advent Mass (Sunday, December 7) and will celebrate the Rite of Calling the Candidates to Continuing Conversion and the Penitential Rite during Mass on the First and Second Sundays of Lent. Please join in praying for the candidates along with their sponsors and catechists as they all continue their faith journeys. For more general information about the OCIA process, you can see the US Bishops’ website at bit.ly/BishopsOCIA. Contact Fr. John at the parish office (508-528-0020) if you are interested in being part of the OCIA process at St. Mary parish.
We celebrate two Solemnities in the month of March: the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus (March 19), and the Solemnity of the Anunciation of the Lord, the day we remember when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and asked her to be Jesus’ mother (March 25). Saints whose feast days we will liturgically “miss”, because of the Lenten season include Sts. Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the three children to whom we believe Mary appeared in Fatima (February 20), St. Katharine Drexel, the Pennsylvania heiress who gave her riches to finance the building of schools for black Americans and indigenous peoples (March 3), and St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the El Salvadorian archbishop who was gunned down while saying Mass (March 24). You can go to the Franciscan Media site, Saint of the Day calendar, bit.ly/CalendarSaints, for more information about these Solemnities and feasts, and others as well.
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