Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, May Easter Graces Spur Us Onward! Having prepared well in Lent and now continuing to celebrate well the Lord’s Resurrection, we are encouraged onward. There is much coming up in next couple months.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He IS RISEN! Alleluia! Happy Easter! I know I say it every year, but don’t be afraid to continue greeting people with “Happy Easter!” or “Christ is Risen!” Easter is 50 days long! The truth of the Resurrection must continue to be impressed upon our hearts and minds.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He IS RISEN! Alleluia! Happy Easter! May God’s blessings be upon you, your families, our parish, and the whole Church throughout the world! My prayer for you all is that the difficulties and struggles that you have united to Christ’s sacrifice may become deeper blessings that lead to salvation. Hopefully you made the time to go to Confession and participate in the liturgical “desert” of Lent. Now we rejoice for St. Paul says, you were buried with Christ so that you might live with Him. And so the Gloria, the Alleluia, the organ, the flowers, and decorations all return showing us the abundance of God’s grace in our lives.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Blessed Palm Sunday Today is Palm Sunday or also referred to as the second Sunday of Passiontide. The joy of Easter is almost here, but we have to first accompany our Blessed Lord in His Passion. We have marked this time by covering statues and images that leads us into today’s commemorating of the Lord’s arrival in Jerusalem as we bless and process with palms. Then we have the reading of the Passion Narrative from Matthew’s Gospel. This even more somber time invites us to walk with Jesus and carry the Cross with Him. This is not a time to make ourselves artificially depressed, but to embrace a somber solemnity and even more reverent silence. There will not be any organ and only simpler chants for Mass.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Blessed Passiontide This weekend begins the final two weeks of Lent also known as Passiontide. The joy of Easter is almost here, but we have to first accompany our Blessed Lord in His Passion. We mark this time with the covering of statues and images that leads us into next week’s celebration of Palm Sunday when the Passion Narrative is proclaimed at Holy Mass. This even more somber time invites us to walk with Jesus and carry the Cross with Him.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Blessed Laetare Sunday! This weekend is one of two that the Church recommends rose colored vestments (the other is Gaudete Sunday in Advent). Both Laetare and Gaudete mean Rejoice! in Latin. This is an “oasis” in the desert of Lent. Today liturgically it is slightly more festive in that we wear rose rather than the regular penitential violet. You have probably noticed the minimal use of the organ the past couple of weeks, but this weekend we bring it back, but only a little bit. Easter is not here yet, but we rejoice at this half way mark. Let this weekend be a half-time pep rally to bolster our disciplines moving forward. The better we prepare in Lent the better the Easter celebration will be!

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Can I Eat Meat this Friday for St. Patrick’s Day? Bishop Malesic has issued a statement that does grant Catholics in the Diocese of Cleveland a particular dispensation from the discipline of abstaining from meat on a Friday of the Lenten season. Please read his statement on the following page. PLEASE NOTE: The relaxing of the discipline is not all there is to the dispensation. The bishop gives conditions. This applies to those “who find it spiritually advantageous to eat meat as a way to celebrate this feast of the church.” It is not a carte blanche dispensation. Simply having Irish heritage or claiming “everyone is Irish on St. Patty’s Day” is not automatically spiritually advantageous.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I’ve Already Screwed Up My Lent! For some, Lent is like New Year’s Resolutions. We make a resolution, but then fail soon after. A few may try again, and even fewer will perhaps over time achieve moderate success. But so often (which is why it has become so cliche) folks fall back into old bad habits.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank You Thank you for your continued support of Catholic Charities in our Diocese. I know many have pledged by mail and others did so at Mass last week. If you are still discerning how you want to support the campaign, that is wonderful. Call the rectory if you need any assistance with making out your pledge.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Getting Ready for Lent and Catholic Charities The last two weeks I wrote and preached on the basic approach we want to take toward Lent. I encourage checking our website where you can read those columns and listen to those homilies because it is a good set up for this weekend. In a nutshell I encourage us all to look forward to being changed through the season of Lent. This change should not be my excuse for something else like losing weight so I feel better about myself. Nor is Lent about me flexing my spiritual muscles so others can see. Lent needs to be God focused: serving Him better is the goal; that’s the change we want to see happen.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Getting ready for Lent How often do we hear the phrase, “So what are you doing for Lent?” Now this is an innocent question, but at the same time, I feel that giving specifics about my spiritual life is not other people’s business. I think usually the question is more surface level, as in, “what are you giving up for Lent?” The church invites us to go deeper with this great season and the disciples that accompany it.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank you all! Thank you to all for a great Feast Day celebration last week, and for all who participated in the St. Paul Novena prayers and events. The disadvantage of having our patronal feast at the end of January is that we are in the middle of winter, so weather and the cold can keep us from celebrating as much as we would like. Even so, I think this practice of the novena and offering multiple events is helpful for people to engage with what I think is a really important date. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand parishes that skate through their feast day without their parishioners even knowing or the celebration is so minimal it does not register with folks.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Feast Day, Parish Novena, and Eucharistic Devotions - January 25- February 2 Our parish patronal feast day is Jan. 25, the Conversion of St. Paul. This year we are celebrating over a period of nine days with our parish novena. This week’s bulletin includes the novena prayers for everyone to pray on their own, and folks can follow on our website or facebook page. This weekend we are continuing the novena prayers following the Masses and also after the 4:30 and 11:30 Masses, we will have time of adoration and Benediction. Here is the rest of the novena schedule:

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Feast Day, Parish Novena, and Eucharistic Devotions - January 25- February 2 Our parish patronal feast day is January 25, the Conversion of St. Paul. This year we are celebrating over a period of nine days with our parish novena. This week’s bulletin includes the novena prayers for everyone to pray on their own, and folks can follow on our website or facebook page. We will offer other public opportunities for prayer as well. Here is the schedule:

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Time after Epiphany / Ordinary Time You will notice that while the Christmas season is technically over, some of our Christmas Decorations have remained. The manger scene is there but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are gone that we reflect on how they had to flee Herod and go to Egypt. The wise men are returning home, but by a different route. Celebrating these events of Jesus’ life can help us realize the importance of the Incarnation in our lives. Having encountered the Lord, we are made new to live a new way. This means it could bring persecution like Herod hunting after the infant Christ. Yet we take courage, for in the Lord’s Providence all will be brought to Good.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Epiphany! The wisemen statues in our church narthex have been “journeying” since the beginning of Advent, making their way from one end of the narthex now arriving at the manger scene. We do this every year to show how Christmas is not just a day, but an event that is celebrated and pondered over time. Epiphany shows forth God’s Revelation to the whole world. The three wisemen where not Jewish, but Gentiles, and were yet drawn to the reality of the Messiah. They show us the universality of our human need for salvation. This is also the foreshadowing of God’s desire to offer salvation to all through faith in His Son. Hopefully we have journeyed closer to the Lord this season, offering Him our meager gifts, and in so doing we are changed by His grace.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Christmas Season continues, so keep pondering the great mystery of Christ’s Incarnation and Nativity. As we switch gears, now at Mass we are singing the Gloria again and moving away from the “Adventy” Mass settings and hearing more of the organ and seeing decorations. However, one aspect that we are continuing is the singing of the Alma Redemptoris Mater hymn after all our Masses. This Marian hymn takes us all the way to February 2 giving us time to more deeply reflect on the Father’s Love, the Son’s Incarnation by the Holy Spirit, and also to honor Mary. Especially today as we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, perhaps take time praying with that hymn. It and its English translation is on the front of this bulletin.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Don’t throw out that tree tomorrow or even next week! For the Christmas Season is only now just beginning. The Feast of Christmas has its own liturgical octave, so that means for eight days we embrace the wonderful mystery of Christ’s nativity. Then the Christmas season continues for another week after that. In fact, in our history there was a tradition that the Christmas season would last 40 days taking us up until February 2.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, O Advent, O Antiphons Since last weekend, but especially since yesterday, December 17, the shift has happened from focusing on Christ’s Second Coming to now preparing to celebrate His First Coming. It is also at this time that in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours there are particular antiphons (like the ones chanted after the opening hymn at our Masses) that call out yearningly the different titles of the coming Messiah. They are often called the “O” Antiphons. The human, “O Come, Emmanuel,” is based on these Antiphons, which is why it is most appropriate to sing during these seven days.