I’m happy to report that my nineteen travelling companions and I arrived home safe and sound after an unbelievable pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Everyone told me that it would be a life-changing experience, and so indeed it was. To be in the places where Jesus was born and lived and ministered and died and rose was truly awe-inspiring and touched my heart and my faith in ways that I know will enrich my life and my priesthood for as long as I live. What a blessing! Please be assured that I prayed for all of you and your intentions in every sacred place we visited, but especially at the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. You will certainly be hearing more from me about this wonderful pilgrimage in the coming weeks and months.
This coming Wednesday, with the mark of ashes, we begin the holy season of Lent, that forty-plus day journey that leads us to the celebration of the dying and rising of Jesus in our liturgical observance of Holy Week and Easter.
We have, as always, a very full Lenten season planned for our parish communities here at Saint Timothy and Saint Bartholomew. Inside this week’s bulletin, please find our annual Lenten calendar, (printed on purple paper!), which details for you all of the liturgies, prayer experiences, and events we have scheduled for our 2023 Lenten journey. I encourage you to keep this Lenten calendar at home throughout the season. Why not tack it to your bulletin board or stick it on your refrigerator, so it is a handy reference for you in the coming weeks?
I call your attention to a few highlights:
In addition to our regularly-scheduled daily Masses, there will be an extra Mass celebrated each week at Saint Timothy’s on Wednesday at 7:00 P.M., followed by confessions;
Stations of the Cross every Thursday evening at 7:00 at Saint Bartholomew’s and every Friday evening at 7:00 at Saint Timothy’s;
a Triduum in Honor of Saint Joseph, which will be celebrated from Monday, March 13th through Wednesday, March 15th at 7:00 P.M.; each evening’s services include the Triduum prayers, a homily, and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament;
our Lenten adult faith formation program, which will be held every Monday of Lent at 7:00 P.M. in the Rectory. This year’s topic is The Passion and Resurrection Narratives of Jesus. We will be exploring the gospel stories of the passion and resurrection of Jesus, which are at the core of our Christian faith, revealing the nature of God, the person of Jesus, and the path of every disciple;
- Archbishop Perez has designated the weekend of March 10-11 as Reconciliation Weekend in the Archdiocese. Certain parishes throughout the five county Archdiocese will be offering the Sacrament of Penance, and the priests of each region (or deanery) will be going to those churches to hear confessions. In our deanery Saint Matthew Parish has been designated as the church where confessions will be heard on this Reconciliation Weekend. Confessions will be heard at Saint Matthew’s on Friday evening, March 10 from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. and from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. and on Saturday, March 11 from 9:00 A.M. to 12 Noon. Father Lane and I will both be hearing confessions, along with the other priests of our deanery, at various times on both of those days;
Our Ash Wednesday Masses will be celebrated at Saint Timothy’s at 6:30 and 8:30 A.M., 12:05 NOON, and 7:00 P.M., and at Saint Bartholomew’s at 10:00 A.M. There will also be a prayer service at Saint Bartholomew’s at 7:00 P.M. Please note that ashes will be distributed within all of these liturgies. You will also find, at the entrances to the church, some tools which will help you in your Lenten practices. There are Little Black Books, which contain a short meditation for each day of the season. There are also Lenten quarter folders, into which you can place quarters each day of the season, bringing the entire folder filled with quarters back to church at the end of Lent. The quarters you return will be used to directly assist those who are poor and most in need. There are also cardboard rice bowls, used in conjunction with Operation Rice Bowl, which may also be used to hold your Lenten monetary sacrifices, which, again, will be used to directly help those who are most needy. Know that you and those you love are daily remembered in my Mass and my prayers.