Fifth Week of Easter

Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter on which our Introit invites us to “sing a new song to the Lord” (Psalm 96). This is timely for me as I am starting my facilitation of my next online theology course, “Liturgical Music,” through Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life. https://mcgrath.nd.edu/online-courses/step/courses/liturgical-music-a-historical-musical-and-pastoral-survey/ A couple of members of our St. John Vianney choir are taking this course through which we will study the historical, musical, and pastoral aspects of liturgical music. In today’s Mass we hear as our Responsorial Psalm the last verses of Psalm 22, that very Psalm which Jesus began to recite as he gave up his life for us on the Cross. Today it is as if he finishes his hymn in and through us. How will you allow the Holy Spirit conform you to the Risen Christ, to lift up your voice and praise the Lord in the assembly of his people?

Our First Reading on this Fifth Sunday of Easter always concerns how the Gospel, the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is going beyond the initial Jerusalem Jewish community to begin to echo to the ends of the earth. In our pericope assigned for Year B we hear how Barnabas, whose name means “the encourager,” becomes a sponsor for St. Paul who will bring the Good News to the nations (the Gentiles). Next week we will hear St. Peter bring the Good News to still more Gentiles previously presumed to be outside the covenant. These two indispensable men, as Bishop Barron calls St. Peter and St. Paul in the episode he devotes to them in his Catholicism series, understood that the message of Jesus Christ, the voice of the Good Shepherd, was for all people. How are you bringing the Good News to others who might need you to invite them and sponsor them into this community of disciples?

In our Gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Easter we have Jesus describe himself as the true vine (see John 15:1-17) which we find as part of Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (which I discussed in last week’s installment), the True Vine forms the core of the Holy Communion retreat, a series of meditations done in preparation for Reconciliation and Penance, before the young people partake of Holy Communion. To remain on the True Vine, to allow the lifeblood or vital sap of Jesus Christ to flow us, means to be grafted to him as a part of his Church, his very Mystical Body. His grace first breathed life into each of us and still more wondrously redeems us still. If we keep his commandment to love one another as he first loved us by willingly laying down his life then he remains in us and we remain in him. This is hard through! Especially when we have been wounded, when we have suffered at the hands of a loved one or even the Church this simple act of remaining can be a struggle. Jesus said these words to his disciples knowing Judas among his own company would that very night betray him. And yet it is only in being fed by Christ’s sacraments—allowing his Precious Blood to flow through us and clinging tenaciously to the risen Christ so as never cut ourselves off from the Church—by being fed on his love outpoured that we can bear much fruit, the fruit of love in our lives reborn in the Reborn Christ. As you prune your plants this week pay close attention to the sap, that natural connections Jesus is drawing out here for us. And then let us pray fervently for ourselves and one another to remain always on the True Vine.

In addition to memorial of St. Peter Chanel, whom I mentioned in last week’s installment and the Samoan celebration at Holy Cross, Tacoma this Sunday, this week’s sanctoral is replete with celebrations. On, Monday, April 29, we keep the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Known as a prolific mystic theologian even in her own time and for her intervention which resulted in the restoration of a divided papacy in the fourteenth century to restored unity in Rome, St. Catherine of Siena was given the title Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with St. Teresa of Avila (making them the first two women Doctors of the Church). As a lay Dominican, St. Catherine of Siena’s her phrase “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire” has inspired many to find their vocation and to unleash the Gospel. St. Catherine of Siena is the patroness of the St. Catherine of Siena Institute for forming intentional disciples. See https://siena.org/ for more information about their excellent Called and Gifted Workshops and other resources.

On Wednesday, May 1, the Church marks the relatively recently added memorial of St. Joseph the Worker as a counterpoint to the Communist International Workers of the World Day (May Day). The principal solemnity of St. Joseph is observed on March 19 as mentioned last month; however, May 1 accords us an opportunity to reflect not only on the tradesman St. Joseph who raised Jesus but also on the rights and dignity of workers, one of the key themes of Catholic Social Teaching. See https://tinyurl.com/3rbpe6ba for more information and familiarize yourself with these key themes. You might as a family take today to reflect to reflect on the dignity of all those who labor to make possible the lives we enjoy by perhaps learning the names or at least seeking out stories of those who drive your bus, pack your Amazon shipments, pick your berries, manufacture your iPhone, etc. How can you advocate for, that is be a voice for, these men and women who labor who are not able to raise their own voices? How can we stand in solidarity with the unemployed and uphold their right to work as part and parcel of their human dignity?

The subsequent day, Thursday, May 2, is the memorial of St. Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), one of the principal early Church voices from Alexandria, one of those five principal sees (hubs) of Christianity which we looked at a few weeks back. St. Athanasius was an important theologian, countering the heresy of Arianism and is, therefore, often regarded as the greatest champion of Christian orthodoxy regarding the Incarnation at a time when the world was forcing changes on the newly legalized Christian Church. Saint Athanasius participated in several of the early ecumenical councils and, despite multiple exiles imposed by political rulers, is considered one the four Greek/Eastern Fathers of the Church. St. Athanasius’ Life of St. Antony the Great (251-356) also helped to spread desert monasticism and influenced the shape of the whole worldwide Church. I think it is also important that we not overlook that St. Athanasius in the East and St. Augustine in the West, both so influential in shaping Christianity in this seminal fourth century, similarly hailed from Africa.

Finally for this week on Friday, May 3, we keep the Feast of the Apostles, St. Philip and St. James. This is the so called “Little James” (Jacobus Minor) to be distinguished from “James the Greater” (Jacobus Major, James the Son of Zebedee ) our archdiocesan cathedral is named after. This Feast of St. Philip and St. James on May 3 honors from the anniversary of the dedication of the minor Basilica of the Twelve Apostles (Santi Apostoli) in Rome on this date in the sixth century. The crypt of the basilica houses the relics of these two Apostles. Both St. Philip, who grew up in Bethsaida with St. Peter and St. Andrew, and St. James the Less are said to have taken their mission to Hierapolis in Phrygia (modern day Turkey) which reminds us of the multiethnic shape of the Christian Church from her very first days as the Holy Spirit lead the Apostles to share the Good News of the Risen Jesus Christ.

Throughout this Fifth Week of Easter I would commend to you once more, as mentioned in the Easter Sunday installment, to pray as a family the Stations of the Resurrection (Via Lucis). https://vialucis.org/images/pdf/Via-Lucis-Inglese-comunita.pdf This would also be a good time to ponder the Prefaces of Easter with Mauricio Perez https://tinyurl.com/c43hr3tv who points to these elegant and concise reflections on the Paschal Mystery. Mauricio has written for Northwest Catholic, Patheos, and is completing a liturgy degree at the Pontifical Academy of Liturgy. His son attends O’Dea and serves with our Campus Ministry team!

Lastly, as we enter into May, let us recall that this is a whole month set apart to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. In wider culture May Day has begun to recover much of its pre-communist focus on the fecundity of springtide as naturally corresponding to the virginal fertility of Mary. Next week I will offer some suggestions of ways to honor Mary in your home. But this Saturday, a day of the week set aside to honor Mary, you may want to organize a simple May Crowing https://tinyurl.com/2zcxyrhj by placing a crown of flowers on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in your home. And perhaps we want to conclude by praying, perhaps even singing a new song such as “The May Magnificat” by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ:

May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunist
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstacy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

Fourth Week of Easter

Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is Good Shepherd Sunday! As we hear in our Communion Antiphon, “The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep and willingly died for this flock, alleluia” (Roman Missal, Fourth Sunday of Easter). Given that since the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council we have been blessed with a three-year cycle in the Sunday Lectionary for Mass there are not that many Sundays in the liturgical year which are thematically related in every year. There are some, such as the First and Second Sundays of Lent and Palm Sunday, whereon we hear each of the synoptic accounts (the accounts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke) of the same event in each of the lectionary years (A, B. and C, respectively). There are even a very few Sundays whereon we hear precisely the same Gospel, such as Jesus’ appearance to Thomas (John 20:19-31) as we heard on the Second Sunday of Easter. But on this Fourth Sunday of Easter every year we have the unique experience of hearing a different segment of Jesus’ Parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10). Good Shepherd Sunday each year presents one segment of John 10. This year, as we are in Year B, we are given “the second moment” (John 10:11-18) to ponder. This leads us to trust the path of the Good Shepherd, as we hear in our Collect (or Opening Prayer), that “the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.”

When I was ministering with our youngest catechumens I was blessed to be trained and certified in the first two levels of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori inspired method to form children ages 3-6, 6-9, and 9-12 in our Catholic Christian faith. This “method of signs,” as it is known, uses the primary symbols, gestures, and words of our Biblical-Liturgical tradition and helped me to synthesize and distill down to the essentials how the Church hands on the mysteries entrusted to her to foster an encounter with Jesus Christ. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, following the Lectionary, we present to children today’s Parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10) in three moments. In the first moment we recognize that Jesus is the Good Shepherd whose voice we attend to. How can you listen more attentively to the voice of the Lord in your life? In the second moment we recognize that the Good Shepherd lays down his life to protect the sheep from harm and offer them safe pasture. How can you thank Jesus for laying down his life to save you? And, finally, in the third moment we help children recognize that this same Good Shepherd gives himself to us and remains with us to feed us in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. How can your participation in the Mass lead you to offer your whole life as fitting worship to glorify God? As we hear at the end of Mass today, let us pray that God will “Look upon your flock, kind Shepherd, and be pleased to settle in eternal pastures the sheep you have redeemed by the Precious Blood of your Son” (Prayer after Communion).

In your home this week you might place a statue of the Good Shepherd on your prayer table (such as this one found in the Vatican Museum) or this image which we use in the Atrium (the prepared space for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd).  LTP also publishes CGS resources including a great book The Good Shepherd and the Child: A Joyful Journey (revised and updated 2013) which a former colleague at St. Michael Parish, Olympia used for a fruitful adult/parent book study. I encourage you to look into training in this same method, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, for your own growth and to be of service to the children in your life and our parish community. Kim Ward, who is on pastoral staff at our new partnered parish of St. Patrick, Tacoma, coordinates our entire region’s Sheepfold, a network for formation of adults in this Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. See https://tinyurl.com/3ppctk3m for more information.

This Fourth Sunday of Easter is often also the date on which First Holy Communion is given to children or on which we celebrate the Rite of Reception/Admission into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church for those who were baptized and raised in other Christian traditions. It is clearly a fitting time to reflect on Jesus’ gift of himself to us in Holy Communion, a gift for which he prepared his disciples in John 6 as we heard each day of this past week (and about which I wrote last week). Here at St. John Vianney our children who have been preparing for their First Holy Communion will partake of the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass on Sunday, May 5. A big thanks to Erin and Ryan Simmons for their continuation of the ministry of forming these children of God.

Our Sunday and weekday First Readings at Mass throughout this Fourth Week of Easter keep us in our study of Acts 11 and 13 which I have also been studying with my freshmen at O’Dea High School. Again, be sure to check out those episodes of The Bible Project on the Acs of the Apostles and, for our younger readers, check out Diary of a Disciple: Peter and Paul’s Story which I mentioned I the Easter Sunday installment.

We have been slim in our sanctoral (memorials of saints) these past few weeks, although our youth did make various dishes to represent saints for their youth group on Wednesday. During this week ahead we have several holy men and women to remember. If April 21 was not a Sunday, it would be the memorial of St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), a Doctor of the Church most well known for his Proslogion (Discourse) from which we have the famous dictum of theology, Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith Seeking Understanding). While one can investigate divine things by reason, St. Anselm argues one necessarily begins theological inquiry from the position of having faith rather than say, investigating in order to convince oneself to have faith. Faith is, as we read in the Catechism, always a gift of God and a free response of the will (see CCC 153-161).

On Tuesday, April 23, we keep the memorial of St. George. St. George was a Roman soldier who was martyred by decapitation in 303 under the orders of Emperor Diocletian for the crime of being a Christian. While little is known of his life the later Golden Legend (from the 13^th century) tells the famous story of St. George lancing the dragon which we find all over Christendom from England to Ukraine to Ethiopia—all of which claim St. George as a patron. It might be fun today to smash a dragon piñata or play lance the dragon, to celebrate something of the chivalrous willingness to lay down one’s life in defense of the good and pure. In early monastic spirituality, following Evagrius, the true dragon every Christian must slay is his or her own anger or wrath. Tolkien makes the dragon Smaug an emblem of ravenous covetousness.

On Thursday, April 25, we celebrate the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. Although there is ongoing scholarly debate about the identity of the Gospel writer there is scholarly consensus that the Gospel of Mark is the earliest of the accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mark is said to have brought the Gospel to Alexandria, the cultural and financial heart of the classical Mediterranean region. To this day the Coptic (Egyptian) Church regards St. Mark as their founder as we in the west regard St. Peter as our Father, Papa. Given that we are currently hearing largely from this earliest and shortest of the Gospels every Sunday since we in Year B in our Sunday Lectionary, it would be especially timely to sit down and read the whole Gospel. Mark’s account contains a number of peculiarities especially his so called Messianic secret. In Christian iconography St. Mark is associated with the winged Lion of the apocalyptic visions (Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4) and so we see not only Alexandria in Egypt but also later the city of Venice associated with Lions (since the latter stole the relics of St. Mark from Alexandria). You can find some beautiful coloring pages depicting the four evangelists and St. Mark as the Lion which our youngest parishioners might enjoy.

Lastly, April 28 is the memorial of St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841). Although in most places this would be superseded by the Fifth Sunday of Easter, at our partnered parish of Holy Cross in Tacoma there is a special shrine to St. Peter Chanel established by the Samoan Catholic community there in honor of St. Peter Chanel’s mission to and martyrdom as the first Martyr of Oceania at Futuna. On Sunday, April 28, Archbishop Etienne will be celebrating Mass with the Samoan community and having a Samoan feast following. Here at St. John Vianney we will be hosting Brendan McCauley for a talk on the Theology of the Body at 3:00 in the afternoon which I hope you will plan to attend!

Third Week of Easter

I hope you all had a blessed celebration of the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) last week. It was such a joy for me to celebrate together with our whole St. John Vianney community my own family’s tenth Divine Mercy potluck here on Vashon. Let us always praise our “God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people…made [his] own” and pray earnestly that each of us “grasp and rightly understand in what font [we] have been washed, by whose Spirit [we] have been reborn, by whose Blood [we] have been redeemed” (Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter). I wasn’t able to prepare an entry for last week as I was enjoying my Spring Break part of which my family spent taking in the beauty of the Washington coast and camping there. Many of the suggestions I offered in the Easter Sunday column remain timely throughout this whole Eastertide of the Resurrection of our Lord including books to read (for various ages) and several devotions through which we can enter into the Resurrection.

This week in the sacred liturgy we continue on each of the days in the Mass readings to move through the first eight chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the beginning of the early Church in Jerusalem, including the martyrdom of St. Stephen our first Christian martyr (protomartyr) and among the first seven deacons (see Acts 6:1-7). See the suggested Bible Project overview of Acts that I recommended in the Easter Sunday installment.

In the Gospel readings for this week we hear the Bread of Life discourse from Gospel of John (chapter 6) reminding us that this Eastertide is mystagogical (an unpacking of the mysteries, the sacraments) not only for those initiated at the great Easter Vigil but also for those of us who that night or Easter Sunday morning renewed our own baptismal promises. Savoring John 6 throughout this week is thus the Church’s invitation to renew our understanding of and commitment to encountering the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.

As we continue our story of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles which we hear as our First Reading at every Mass during Eastertide we see the early Christian community take shape and go out to all the ends of the earth as Jesus commanded them. In so doing the apostles and their companions are translating the Good News of the Resurrection into the languages and cultures of each people whom they encountered. This experience led to diverse Christian expressions while maintaining a shared set of beliefs grounded in that shared encounter with the Risen Jesus Christ. When I was in graduate school I was drawn to the study of two very distinct expressions of Catholic Christianity. While a student at Notre Dame and then in San Diego I spent a great deal of time studying and praying with the Chaldean Catholic community. Chaldeans are the Catholic Christians native to northern Iraq/Assyria, centered around Mosul, which has been Christian for almost 2000 years! When it came time for me to undertake fieldwork abroad, I was unable to go to northern Iraq in the early 2000s and so I took the research questions I had about the development of an authentic, apostolic Christianity not rooted in Western philosophical influences and literally went a different direction. I switched to studying Tigrinya, the Semitic language of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea and studied the Eritrean Catholic (Ge’ez Rite) Catholic Church. I was able to study in Asmara and learned a great deal about the liturgy, spirituality, and lived experience of Eritrean Catholics. Both of these beautiful and distinct rites of the Catholic Church helped me to better understand my own Roman Catholic rite more fully just like learning a foreign language enables you to better understand the grammar of your mother tongue.

Last week at the conclusion of Mass Fr. David Mayovsky not only shared the pastoral assignments for our Partners in the Gospel but he also shared his current formation to have bi-ritual faculties, that is to say, to be able to continue to celebrate the Mass of the Roman Rite (as we know) as our pastor as well as to soon celebrate the Byzantine Divine Liturgy (Eastern Catholic name for what we call Mass). In the coming weeks I know Fr. David will be sharing more about his journey that has led to his seeking such bi-ritual competency and faculties. And, just as my study of the Chaldean Catholic and Eritrean Catholic churches helped me deepen my knowledge of the Roman Rite I hope you too will see Fr. David’s journey as an occasion for you to know Christ ever more richly through the diversity of liturgical rites in that one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in which we profess believe every Sunday. I would highly encourage you to check out this overview of the various churches that all make up the Catholic Church: https://youtu.be/U84znOpESv8 This will be good background to some formation I will also be offering here and experiences Fr. David will be sharing with us.

We see in the early history of Christianity that, after the Christians moved out from Jerusalem (as we hear in the Acts of the Apostles), Antioch in Syria becomes the first place where the followers of Jesus would be called Christians. Through the missionary efforts of St. Paul Christianity spread throughout the Hellenistic (or Greek-speaking) world and together with St. Peter, even to Rome, the capital of the empire. Very early on Christians also established themselves in the cultural hub of the eastern Mediterranean, Alexandria in Egypt, where a sizeable Jewish diaspora had been for centuries. In each of these three sees—Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria—a distinct way of being Christian emerged. After Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire in the early fourth century and with the transfer of the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium (which was renamed Constantinople) the new capital became the central see for Greek speaking Christians. Meanwhile the Syriac community of Antioch found itself split by the ever changing boundary between the Persian and Roman Empires. Thus by the time we reach the fifth century there are four families. Each had its own language, shape of liturgy, and spiritual ancestors. The Roman Rite, centered in Rome and covering the Western part of the empire, used Latin and relied on the likes of St. Irenaeus (from France) and St. Augustine (from North Africa). The Byzantine Rite, centered on Constantinople and covering Greece and Turkey, used Greek and looked to St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. The Alexandrian or Coptic rite in Egypt and points south used Coptic (a successor language to ancient Egyptian) in the liturgy and relied on St. Athanasius and desert monastic spiritual fathers. The Antiochian rites—one Eastern Syriac branch in Mesopotamia in the Persian Empire and beyond to India and Central Asia used Aramaic in the liturgy and relied on the likes of St. Ephrem the Syrian while the other Western Syriac branch was rooted in Lebanon and other parts of the Levant in the Roman Empire, such as Jerusalem. While all this detail may seem overwhelming it helps us see how the Church has always been universal, catholic, from the beginning, adapting to the cultures and languages where the Good News was preached. In future installments I’ll look at how these families grew, influenced one another, maintained communion in diversity, and hopefully provide some additional context for the multicultural, multi-ritual Catholic Church of whom we’re so blessed to be members.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia Alleluia

“Knock knock!” “Who’s there?” Why are you looking here! The tomb is empty.”

“Christ is risen, alleluia alleluia!”
“He is risen indeed, alleluia alleluia!”

Happy Easter and blessings in this season of the Resurrection. The Paschal Greeting (above), whether in Greek, Latin, English or Spanish, should be on our lips these days. See if you can start every conversation this week with that Paschal Greeting! The Easter season also sees us welcoming the telling of Paschal Jokes. Hopefully yours are better than mine though!

When you attend Mass on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection be sure to bring home some of the newly blessed Holy Water with which you renewed your Baptismal Promises. Place the Holy Water in a beautiful crystal bowl or some other dignified vessel and set it at the center of your prayer table. You might also put around it your baptismal candle or photos of your and your children’s Holy Baptism or baptismal garment to be kept unstained (literally “immaculate”) for eternity.

Each of the days of Easter Week, known also as Bright Week or the Octave of Easter, offers us great opportunities to deepen our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and our immersion into that through the sacraments especially Holy Baptism. Almost twenty years ago I was working at a large parish and had just attended a workshop/retreat on fully implementing the RCIA (catechumenate or process for Christian initiation). I knew from personal experience and also heard many colleagues sharing their challenges with the period of mystagogy or seeking to understand the profound invisible mysteries conferred through the visible sacraments (see CCC 1074-1075). Neophytes, those newly initiated such as Josiah whom I was blessed to accompany at the Easter Vigil last night at St. James Cathedral, were in the standard practice expected to keep meeting every week for the whole Easter season just as they had been when they were preparing for initiation beforehand. But the neophytes themselves were telling us that they had been changed by their Christian initiation and they needed a new and different kind of ongoing formation. They no longer needed initiatory catechesis. At the same time I discovered, as I was reading early Church sermons contained in the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours and an old graduate school textbook, that this First Week of Easter was the original intense time of mystagogy. This honeymoon after the nuptials is the time to explore the many different dimensions of what the whole Christian community experienced by the rebirth of these new Christians at the Easter Vigil. I therefore developed an eight-day retreat during this Octave of Easter where each evening, beginning on Easter Sunday evening, the newly baptized and the whole community would gather at the font for Vespers and then share reflection on specific sacramental experiences. This was a chance for the community to hear from their newborns how God’s work through the sacraments of Christian initiation had not only changed the neophytes but also, through them, the whole Church sent into the world. The neophytes it turns out are uniquely positioned to share their good zeal with others! Families and parishioners would swap photos and talk about their life in Christ, informed by texts from the Liturgy of the Hours, and grow together in their new shared sacramental life. You can check out the full scope in “Going an Octave Deeper,” which I published in LTP’s Pastoral Liturgy, for points of reflection each evening in your own home perhaps around your own holy water stoup placed on your prayer table. https://tinyurl.com/56yxzkf2 The Octave of Easter (or Easter Week) concludes with Vespers on the Second Sunday of Easter, known as Quasimodo Sunday (from the Entrance), Thomas Sunday, Sunday for depositing the white baptismal robes in which the neophytes were clothed at the Easter Vigil, or, more recently, Divine Mercy Sunday. I look forward to celebrating something our living on Vashon anniversary with you at our Divine Mercy lamb roast next Sunday afternoon.

One of the hallmarks of the Easter season in the Liturgy of the Eucharist is that we hear for the next fifty days from the Acts of the Apostles as out First Readings. The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume in a two-part work by St. Luke (the Gospel of Luke being the first part of course). The Gospel of Luke tells us all that the Holy Spirit did from the moment of God becoming incarnate as Jesus Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary until the Ascension when God, now incarnate forever as the Resurrected Jesus Christ, opens the way for all human beings to be united with him. The Acts of the Apostles then tells the story of how that same Holy Spirit animates the early Church who becomes the extension of the incarnation of the Body of Christ to our world. Make some time during Easter to explore the Acts of the Apostles. I will be having my freshmen at O’Dea High School read through Acts guided by this series from The Bible Project. https://youtu.be/JQhkWmFJKnA Younger readers might enjoy the graphic novel continuation of The Diary of a Disciple: Peter and Paul’s Story. https://content.scriptureunion.org.uk/diary-disciple

The Acts of the Apostles and Eastertide teach us that the Church is not merely some human institution but is Christ’s mystical Body. Thus, when we talk about the Church we have, as we have in Christ, one that is fully human and fully divine. Ours is a Church filled with fallible people like me and yet is at the same time animated by the Holy Spirit who guards, guides, and protects her and makes her sacramental life efficacious. As we’re in the midst of our Partners in the Gospel I would propose that, if you’re interested in reimagining what a parish can be, how new life can rise in this Eastertide, and taking time to think and pray together how we can be more effective missionary disciples here on Vashon Island, check out Fr. James Mallon’s Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission (Twenty-Third, 2014) https://a.co/d/6ed8ZG4 Together with a few other parishioners I have been rereading this book to which I was first introduced almost ten years ago and in which I find a new paradigm of how to think about a parish, a plan which makes real, makes incarnate you might say, the vision of a resurrected, Eastertide parish that Pope Francis articulated so beautifully in his Joy of the Gospel (2013). I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Divine Renovation and, in this Easter Season in which we hear about the mighty deeds God did in the early Church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, that you’ll also listen for and imagine together how the Holy Spirit is working in our parish to reach even more people with the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ. It is not an exaggeration to say that we have been called as missionaries with stories to be told in what is, in effect, Acts of the Apostles chapter 2024. Our island community longs to experience that love of God which is so great that not even death could hold him bound. Filled with that same Holy Spirit let’s start a renovation, a Divine Renovation, and make real a love which is just waiting to burst forth here and now as we look toward a new Pentecost on Vashon!

In the online course I am currently teaching for Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life, “The Liturgical Year: What is it and why does it matter?” one text from which we’re reading a section each week is the Directory for Popular Piety which I’ve mentioned previously. Some years ago, when this Directory first came out from the Vatican, I was introduced through it to the Via Lucis a wonderful Easter devotion synthesized by Fr. Palumbieri. The Via Lucis (Way of Light) is a Stations of the Resurrection parallel to and continuing the story we marked in Lent with the devotion of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) or Stations of the Cross. The Via Lucis traces these 14 stations throughout the Easter season: https://tinyurl.com/buecyfxd

A closing note on this Easter Sunday of the Resurrection: as you sit down this morning to enjoy your Hot Cross Buns and coffee (once again with cream and sugar!) or as you carve into that Easter ham, be sure to look back at your Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving not as something you leave behind but rather as a struggle through which God helped you so that you can now enter into this newness of life. Savor the goodness of that new life and walk freely into his Promised Land, a filled with rich and choice foods in which you can now truly delight. And not just chocolate and ham but tasting and seeing the goodness of God himself. Whatever table you’re at lift up your voice and with us sing, “Alleluia!” For “Christ is risen, alleluia alleluia!” Let your whole being echo in reply, “He is risen indeed, alleluia alleluia!”

Let us ever glory in the Cross of Christ – Holy Week

Holy Week is packed and there is honestly little we need to do at our homes other than prepare ourselves to participate fully, consciously, and actively in as many of the liturgies as we can during this Holy Week. It is by our immersion into these liturgies that we are made partners with and partakers in Christ’s Paschal Mystery, the saving work of his passion, death, and Resurrection.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion which itself commences with our outside procession carrying branches to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entry into the Holy City, Jerusalem. Be sure to arrive early for Mass, collect your palms branches, and join with the children of Jerusalem and sing your Hosannas sweetly.

Monday of Holy Week, March 25, is not observed as the Annunciation of the Lord this year (precisely nine months before December 25) because it falls during Holy Week. The Solemnity of the Annunciation (otherwise on March 25) is therefore transferred until after the Octave of Easter to Monday, April 8 (as an eclipse moves over much of the U.S.). We’ll cover more about the Annunciation itself in an Eastertide issue. March 25 is, however, considered by many authors both ancient and modern as the most important date in history! Of course our calendars aren’t stable throughout history so it is not that God needs us to celebrate on a particular date but rather the dates help us see the connections the divine author has made. In the Jewish reckoning of time March 25 was seen as the date of the Creation of the world, the date of the Passover, and of course is linked to the Spring Equinox (which fell on Tuesday, March 19, this year). Christians then saw the beginning of a new creation with the Son of God becoming Incarnate in the womb of Blessed Virgin Mary (which is the event we celebrate on the Annunciation). In the year in which Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead his crucifixion likely also took place on March 25 and thus he was not only the beginning of the New Creation but also the New Passover Lamb. J.R.R. Tolkien sets March 25 as the day on which Frodo finally casts the Ring of Power into the fires of Mount Doom thus destroying the hold which the ring once held, destroying that which bound all who desired and grasped after such unlimited power, like Christ’s destruction of sin on the Cross. (Thus March 25 is also Tolkien Reading Day for fans of the Professor). Until the 17^th century most European cultures marked March 25 and the beginning of Spring as the beginning of the new year. Persian culture has also for more than 3000 years celebrated Noyruz or New Years and influenced Jewish celebrations of the arrival of spring. On this crucial date we look back and recall that all of the cosmos was created by God who, in the fullness of time, took on our flesh to enter into his created order in order to redeem all.

In the present we prepare to welcome him into our lives as he gives his very flesh to us as food. And even here and now we look forward to that future culmination of time when Christ will return to redeem all of creation, when he will be all in all (Parousia). This meaning laden sacred time is thus the setting for our immersing ourselves into the sacred Paschal Triduum not as observers or spectators but as the people to whom God is making his Paschal Mystery alive this very Holy Week.

I would really encourage you during the first part of this Holy Week to watch the documentary This Side of Eden which follows the Benedictine monastic community of Westminster Abbey (located on the Fraser River in Misson, British Columbia) as the monks prepare for and celebrate Holy Week. Our own Fr. David was once a student at Westminster and was formed by their monastic community! The pace of This Side of Eden helps me slow down and focus on the central themes of Holy Week. I have used this documentary to help liturgists, high school students, et al. to enter into the stillness of this week and reflect on the meaning of the Holy Week liturgies. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thissideofeden

Wednesday of Holy Week, March 27, is sometimes known as Spy Wednesday as it was on this night that Judas made provision to hand over Jesus to the Sanhedrin. On the evening of the next day, as the sun goes down on Holy Thursday, March 28, Lent comes to an end and we enter a three-day liturgical season, the Sacred Paschal Triduum. A few years ago I picked up a copy of Jeremy Driscoll’s Awesome Glory: Resurrection in Scripture, Liturgy, and Theology (Liturgical Press, 2019) and commend that for your reading! After a succinct and profound introduction to liturgical theology, Abbot Jeremy walks readers of Awesome Glory through each of the readings and movements of whole sacred Paschal Triduum going though each liturgy. Awesome Glory would be a good companion for your Holy Week and into the Octave of Easter with the closing chapters he devotes to such. Another excellent read is Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week (Ignatius, 2011) which follows Jesus during this Holy Week from Palm Sunday to the Cross and out of the empty Tomb/Sepulchre.

In our liturgical celebrations on the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday we’ll begin bringing in the blessed Oil of the Sick and Oil of the Catechumens as well as the Sacred Chrism consecrated at the Chrism Mass this past Thursday. Then, after hearing about the Institution of the Eucharist and Jesus’ model of service at the Last Supper, we’ll partake of the Washing of the Feet. Known as the Mandatum or “command” this rite lends its name to the whole day as Maundy Thursday. Following the celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist we are invited to stay with the Lord, to repose with him and pray in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, urged to stay awake with Jesus. For many years my family has enjoyed a meal inspired by Levantine cuisine—grilled kabob, tabouleh salad, etc.—spread with our nicest dishes. We read about the Passover from a Jewish children’s book, Miriam’s Cup, and talk about the Passover. But just as it would be inappropriate for someone other than a Catholic priest to take bread, wine, and a Roman Missal to ‘do their own Mass’ I don’t think Christians should host a seder meal. By all means attend one hosted by your Jewish neighbors and friends, have a family Holy Thursday meal before going to Mass, and certainly pray for our Jewish sisters and brothers especially as they face hatred in wider society. But don’t co-opt the Passover Seder meal itself.

After our all-night vigil keeping with the Lord, remembering his Agony in the Garden, on Good Friday we mark the times of Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion. Christians have for millennia observed the midnight hour as we begin Good Friday to recall Jesus’ sham trial by the Sanhedrin, the first light of the morning to reflect on Jesus’ trial by Pilate, noon as the time to recollect Jesus being nailed to the Cross, and finally 3:00PM in the afternoon as the hour our Lord died, giving up his Spirit and completing his saving work. The three hours or Tre Ore from noon to 3:00PM are “prime time” to reflect on the Passion and often when the faithful have attended Tre Ore services (such as at St. James Cathedral) or reenacted live Stations of the Cross. While the liturgy commemorating the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday liturgy) ideally begins at 3:00 in the afternoon, it can and often does for pastoral reasons, begin later in the day so that all can participate in it (we begin at 7:00PM at St. John Vianney). I am grateful that my school begins Spring Break at noon on Holy Thursday allowing us to participate fully in the liturgies of this sacred Paschal Triduum. I will also be taking our kids out of school on Good Friday to walk with other families a Way of the Cross (Via Crucis) from our home near Paradise Ridge all the way to St. John Vianney where we will then walk the Stations of the Cross. You’re welcome to join us and take turns carrying the large, cedar Cross I made decades ago as we pray the Rosary and contemplate Jesus’ Passion. Catholic are obliged to keep Good Friday as a day of fasting and abstinence and encouraged to keep the evening and night of Good Fridy as a time of silence.

On Holy Saturday we are invited to extend our Good Friday fast in solidarity with those who will be reborn in the waters of baptism, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and partake of Holy Communion for the first time this night. During this day, as you help to decorate our parish church and ponder the depths to which Jesus Christ goes to bring back to himself those who have been alienated from God, please pray for all of our Elect. Perhaps as your family prepares in silence your baskets of Easter foods to be blessed you can select a member of your household to read aloud this Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday which comes from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours: https://www.unleashthegospel.org/2019/04/an-ancient-homily-on-holy-saturday/
which you can also find excerpted in the Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers.
See this image of Anastasis, known in English as the Harrowing (or Cleansing) of Hell:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Chora_Anastasis1.jpg

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection begins with the lighting of the paschal fire at the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night. Be sure to gather with your family by 8:45 PM in the north garden of the church. The service of light, Lucernarium, with its preparation and blessing of the Paschal Candle and singing of the Exsultet, is unique to this night. Through the Liturgy of the Word we hear the whole story of salvation history unfold. That pilgrimage we undertook with the chosen people during all of Lent is now given to us as a sort of highlights reel, a reminder of what we’re about to immerse ourselves into. For the Elect and for ourselves who are there to renew our baptismal promises this is of course not the first time we have heard these readings. But it is, perhaps, the first time the Elect have seen this as their story. They are now part of these mighty deeds of God saving his people. For us the sacred liturgy is how we live into the world which the sacred scriptures reveal to us. What God did long ago he is still doing in the lives of believers. Let yourself be bathed in these readings and see through them the saving effects of God’s grace in your life. In many parishes the readings are followed by the Christian initiation of the Elect; here at St. John Vianney we will bless the new water with the Paschal Candle (with echoes of Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan River) and with these waters renew our baptismal promises made by either ourselves or by our parents and godparents when we were first immersed into this story of salvation. It is a popular custom to take some of the newly blessed water home to use for appropriate domestic blessings. All of this culminates in the celebration of the Paschal Liturgy of the Eucharist in which we give thanks for “the true Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world; [for] by dying he has destroyed our death and by rising restored our life” (Preface I of Easter).

Next Sunday I will share some ways to keep the Octave of Easter (Bright Week, Easter Week) but on Easter Sunday itself some wonderful customs you may want to take up include bringing to the church a basket of foods, usually those foods from which we have been fasting such as ham, butter, eggs, cheese, wine, sweets, etc. to be blessed before gracing our Easter Sunday dinner tables. In some families, especially those of Polish and other Slavic descent, Święconka, the blessing of the Easter baskets takes place on Holy Saturday with the food kept until Easter Sunday.

Somewhere our family picked up a custom of making Resurrection Rolls on Easter Sunday morning. These are made by dipping a large marshmallow in melted butter and pumpkin pie spice, like the oil and aromatic spices with which the women anointed Jesus’ crucified body, then wrapping them in those canned biscuit rolls like Jesus’ enshrouded body. The rolls are then baked according to the package time and, when removed the empty tomb filled with spices and sweet gooey-ness remains. It may be tacky but it lifts up the centrality of the Resurrection and the empty tomb during a holiday replete with competing cultural symbols.

You may also go out and dig up your “Alleluia” sign which you buried before the start of Lent. Ours has been on the back stoop, face down, growing Lenten moss and so we’ll bring it in, scrub it clean, and sing out Alleluias once more.

Lastly the custom of dying Easter eggs is connected with the story of Easter Sunday morning. The legend of the red egg goes that St. Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles and first witness to the Resurrection, was invited to a banquet with the emperor. She began to tell the people about Jesus’ Resurrection and the emperor exclaimed, “No more can a man rise from the dead than can this egg in my hand turn red.” All gasped of course when the emperor opened his hand to reveal a red egg. It is for this reason that Byzantine Christians have for millennia dyed their paschal eggs red for the Anastasis, the “standing up,” or Resurrection.

Passiontide, the New Covenant and New Chrism, and memorials of St. Patrick, St. Joseph, and St. Cyril of Alexandria

Everything we do in Lent is marked by journeying or pilgrimage. Where are you going and how are your Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving leading you there? Today as we celebrate the Fifth Sunday of Lent we enter into Passiontide, the two-week run-up toward the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which we commemorate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, respectively. This is the final countdown of our Lent pilgrimage, the last leg of our race, the highest switchback as we ascend the holy mountain toward Easter through Mount Calvary. This is the time to jettison excess gear, cinch in those straps, and lean into the steep climb. Let’s finish well as we’re strengthened by the Holy Spirit and one another’s encouragement!

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear the final installment of our Lenten “short course” through the history of salvation, that pilgrimage of faith we have walked through the Old Testament. We have seen God make covenants with his Elect from the very beginning (first through Noah) and establish the nation (through the Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). We have seen God save and teach his chosen people through the Exodus (with Moses at Mt. Sinai) and then take up his dwelling among them in the Temple (through the royal line of King David) as God brought his people back from their wandering and exile. Maybe your story is like theirs too? Today God tells us where that story will turn next as we hear him speak through his “mouthpiece,” the Prophet Jeremiah, a promise to establish a New Covenant in every human heart. I find that slowly meditating on the penitential Psalm, Miserere mei (Psalm 51), which we proclaim as our responsorial Psalm today just as we did on Ash Wednesday, is a most fitting way to prepare my heart to partner with God. This week, as you prepare your heart to be rent during Holy Week and make a place for Jesus to triumphantly pitch his home in you, to give you new life, you might also place a symbol of your heart in your family’s prayer corner along with the other symbols of the Old Testament covenants we have added week-by-week. Maybe review from the first week of Lent this overview of the covenants as we’ve now heard them all proclaimed for us Sunday by Sunday inviting us into the same story: https://youtu.be/6v4jKkFj3TI

A pious custom of veiling Crosses and images is observed in some parishes and homes. In a way this reflects that inward turn which God makes as he promises a new covenant which shall no longer be written on exterior tablets but rather be etched into our hearts. “In the Dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from this [Fifth] Sunday [of Lent] may be observed. Crosses remain covered until the end of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, but images remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil” (Roman Missal, third edition, Fifth Sunday of Lent). Veiling images reduces the stimuli for our senses and therefore invites us to focus on our interior life, the work God is doing therein to create a new heart. The color of such veils is not prescribed but they have traditionally been lightweight, non-ornate, and purple. I have seen a deep, reddish plum veil as emblematic of the blood of the Paschal Lamb which marked the doorposts of the Hebrews. I do not personally find the aesthetic of, for example, putting the processional crucifix in a bag very appealing; however, veiling images might be a practice your family wants to take up at home to heighten that sense of preparing our hearts inwardly by stripping away everything, even holy images, until we rejoice anew at Eastertide. There is indeed a heavy veil of mourning which is being cast over Jesus’ ministry as he enters his Passiontide.

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year B) our Gospel offers us a third and final foreshadowing of Christ’s impending death. We previously heard Jesus say the Temple of his body would be destroyed (Third Sunday of Lent, John 2) and his telling Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be “lifted up” (Fourth Sunday of Lent, John 3). Today, we continue John’s Gospel in the latter part of chapter 12 as Jesus tells his disciples that he is like a grain of wheat which must be buried only to burst forth from its dead husk and rise again. This teaching follows Jesus’ raising of Lazarus in the previous chapter and his sister, Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet before Jesus enters Jerusalem. The Elect will hear and meditate on that account of Jesus calling Lazarus out from the tomb and declaring “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25) as part of their third and final Scrutiny this Sunday. Let us remember in our prayer these Elect, now formed in the holy mysteries, that God may “grant to these chosen ones…new life at the font of Baptism and number them among the members of Christ’s Church” (For the Third Scrutiny).

We can practically smell the perfumed residue of Mary’s anointing of Jesus at the annual Chrism Mass celebrated in our archdiocese during this week before Holy Week. On Thursday evening, March 21, at 7:00 PM at St. James Cathedral we will celebrate one of the most important archdiocesan events. Most geographically widespread dioceses such as ours transfer the celebration of this Chrism Mass from the time given in the Roman Missal on the morning of Holy Thursday to another time close by when all the priests of the diocese are easier able to attend. It is in the context of the celebration of the Chrism Mass that, each year, every priest in every diocese renews his commitment to his priestly ministry and his promise of obedience to the bishop. It is a beautiful way that Archbishop Etienne, our chief shepherd, will gather his priests just like Jesus gathered the Apostles at the Last Supper, to commune with them in the concelebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The high point and namesake of this Chrism Mass is the blessing of the Holy Oils. During the Chrism Mass the faithful will present the olive oil which Archbishop Etienne will bless to become the Oil of the Sick (used for the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick) and the Oil of Catechumens (used before a person is Baptized). The faithful will also present olive oil and aromatic oils (including balsam) like that which Mary used to anoint Jesus’ feet. Archbishop Etienne will then breathe into this aromatic mixture the Holy Spirit that has been poured out on him in his episcopal ordination thus consecrating the Sacred Chrism (used for Confirmation, the post-Baptismal anointing, the anointing of priests’ hands at their ordination, and the anointing of the altar and walls of a church during her dedication). These oils are then aliquoted so that each priest may take them to the parish, campus ministry, etc. which has been entrusted to him so that these oils may be used in the sacramental ministries throughout this coming year. The Chrism Mass is a glorious celebration linking our parish celebrations with our archbishop, that successor to the Apostles whom Christ has given to teach, guide, and sanctify us as he himself did. I encourage you to start your Holy Week a little early by attending or, if you can’t make it to Seattle, participating online in the Chrism Mass: https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/Events/2024/chrism.aspx The sacraments and their ministers are essential for what it means to be a Catholic Christian. These sacraments are our lifeblood and the Chrism Mass allows us all be united in the ministry of the Apostles handed down to our bishop.

Two weeks ago our sanctoral drew our attention to several Holy Women—St. Photina (the name the tradition gives to the Samaritan Woman at the Well), Ss. Perpetua and Felicity, and St. Frances of Rome. This week we look to several men whose heroic virtue numbers them among the Church Triumphant and whose intercession we seek. This mirrors well the ideas our teens have been reflecting on during their Frassati Youth Group with the Theology of the Body. A huge thanks to Erin and Ryan Simmons for leading our teens to see their God given femininity and masculinity as the unique means by which God sanctifies us and builds up his Church.

The memorial of St. Patrick falls on this Sunday and, since it is a Sunday, your normal Lenten abstinence doesn’t apply. I look forward to seeing you at the St. Patrick’s feast at the parish social hall. And, in a special way, as we remember the first Catholic parish of Vashon-Maury Island, St. Patrick in Dockton (marked by a plaque on the Dockton historic trail and whose bell is in Dockton Park), as well as look ahead to the future of our parish family including St. Patrick, Tacoma as our Partner in the Gospel, this is truly a parish titular feast! Everyone is a wee bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day it seems! There are countless ways that the wider world has marked this holiday of March but is important for us as Catholics to keep in mind the real St. Patrick who was enslaved as a young child, relied on God’s grace, and when set free returned to the land of his captors to preach the Good News of God’s mercy in Christ Jesus to them. That is indeed a heroic story! Whether he drove the snakes out of Ireland as shown on the crest of Bishop Edward O’Dea under which I teach everyday—or more profoundly held up the Light of Christ to defeat the darkness of superstitious and inhumane forces that once held the Emerald Isle in bondage—we recall on this day a dedicated Apostle whose ascetic lifestyle, charismatic preaching in defense of the Holy Trinity, and incarnational theology wed the things of this world to invisible spiritual realities. I encourage you to pray the complete Lorica (or Breastplate) of St. Patrick which you can find in your Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers and at https://aleteia.org/2021/03/16/st-patricks-breastplate-unpacked/ In last week’s installment I made a film suggestion and offered a couple of brief videos about the life of St. Patrick. Be sure to check those out online if you haven’t. Lastly, I chose St. Patrick as my confirmation saint since I was moved by his missionary efforts, the powerful effects of later Irish monastics and scribes (see Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe), and the resilience of the Irish Catholic population who faced persecution not only at home when England conquered Ireland but also at the hands of Nativists here in the United States. St. Patrick is indeed a holy man whose memory and legacy are worthy of celebration!

Tomorrow, on Monday, March 18, we keep the memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313 – 386) not to be confused with St. Cyril of Alexandria. St. Cyril of Jerusalem was bishop of the Holy City when Christianity was able to emerge as a religio licita (legal religion) in the Roman Empire. Cyril of Jerusalem is most well known as the author of more than a dozen Catechetical Homilies given to the catechumens preparing for the sacraments and his continuation of their formation in seven or so Mystagogical Catecheses given after the neophytes’ Christian initiation. These texts are included in the Office of Readings as the Second Reading during the Octave of Easter and formed the core of a formation retreat during Easter Week that I have used with the newly baptized. Egeria, an Iberian pilgrim to the Holy Land at the time St. Cyril was bishop of Jerusalem, records in her extant journals that Cyril was the liturgist and preacher during the Paschal celebrations which she describes in some detail. We thus can reconstruct with surprising accuracy both the liturgy and the preaching of late fourth century Jerusalem during Holy Week! This pattern helped to shape the present celebration of the Paschal Triduum which was restored in 1955. As you make a plan to participate fully in our Holy Week and Paschal Triduum liturgies with your family, check out this beautiful Catechesis XXI of St. Cyril: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310121.htm 

Then on Tuesday we have a rare Solemnity during Lent, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you flip open your Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers you will see a Blessing of a St. Joseph Table. The popular custom, especially in Sicily, is to bless a table laden with breads, pastries, and at least one lima bean. These are then shared with the poor. For many years we have made Zeppole di San Giuseppe, a choux pastry filled with pistachio pudding. We know exceedingly little about St. Joseph from the Gospels; however, there is much we can fill in through Old Testament typology and from these many pious customs have arisen including a recent interest in Consecration to St. Joseph. Throughout the sweeping Christian tradition the Solemnity of St. Joseph has been an occasion to ponder fatherhood, a sort of Catholic Father’s Day. Years ago, I came across a beautiful explanation from St. Augustine of Hippo that St. Joseph was not only the foster father of Jesus but also was himself adopted, something St. Augustine evinces from the different genealogies of Jesus he encountered in the scriptures, thus showing this deep empathy St. Joseph had toward his adopted son, the Son of God, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. I stop by the statue of St. Joseph in St. James Cathedral every weekday afternoon on my way home from O’Dea and touch the feet of St. Joseph as I pray that God work through me to be a good, holy spouse and father. I certainly need the intercession and example of St. Joseph! As you enjoy your St. Joseph buns perhaps pray this Litany of St Joseph, our patron of the Universal Church: https://www.usccb.org/prayers/litany-saint-joseph “Go to Joseph!”

Finally, although not on the universal calendar, the Transitus of St. Benedict (March 21) on Thursday of this week is a memorial kept by Benedictine monastics and was the principal memorial of St. Benedict until his memorial was moved to July 11 so as not to have too many festivals during Lent.

I hope to see you at the Chrism Mass on Thursday and next week we’ll briefly address the transfer of the Annunciation and get into Holy Week!

“Let us go rejoicing” as we enter the Fourth Week of Lent

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, we hear our next step in the story of Salvation History of God’s Chosen People. The descendants of Abraham (whose fidelity to God we saw tested on the Second Sunday of Lent) received the Law from God (as we heard last week on the Third Sunday of Lent) and then wandered in the wilderness until entering the Promised Land. God was abiding among his people in the tabernacle (or meeting tent) until King David proposed building God a house, a Temple. Instead, God established a covenant with King David making of him a dynastic house. The first Temple would be completed by King David’s son and heir, King Solomon, only to be destroyed by the Babylonians (in 587 BC). On this Fourth Sunday of Lent, we hear how God remains faithful to the covenants he has made with his people as he restores them to their land and has the foreign overlord, King Cyrus of Persia, release the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon and even funds their rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. As we ponder this story, I invite you to consider, “What holds me in bondage and how can our trust in God’s fidelity give us hope for a deliverer to lead us out of exile and restore us to the Promised Land?” This would be a good time to revisit (or make) a model of the Temple for your prayer corner or to check out the videos I shared last week under the Gospel about the centrality of the Temple. Last summer I also gained a lot by reading Steven Smith’s The House of the Lord: A Catholic Biblical Theology of God’s Temple Presence in the Old and New Testaments (Franciscan, 2017).

This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday from the Introit (or Entrance Chant taken from Isaiah 66:10), “Rejoice Jerusalem…” and serves as a respite from our testing during these 40 days of exile. I encourage you to read Isaiah 66 with your family and tease out together the connections the Church wants us to see with the readings we heard last week. Following the Laetare antiphon the Church appoints Psalm 122, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” to be sung at the beginning of Mass. Slowly reading Psalm 122 in order to meditate on these words (to chew on, savor, or mull them over) is an opportunity to pray using the same words and emotions which Jesus had as he entered into his own holy city. This Mid-Lent Laetare Sunday also makes today a parallel to the Late Advent Gaudete Sunday, a respite amid our penitential preparations. You will see Fr. David donning rose or pink vestments and the paraments on the altar and ambo in the sanctuary may also be rose or pink. You might forgo your Lenten disciplines on this day and rejoice as today offers a foreshadowing of the coming day of the Lord’s Resurrection. In the UK this Sunday has been observed for six or more centuries as Mothering Sunday, an opportunity to visit one’s “mother church,” that is the parish (or other church) where you were baptized. If you are able to do so, please go check it out. I used to enjoy taking those Christians who were seeking admission/reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church to visit and give thanks for the churches of their baptism as a mark of our Christian unity. If you can’t make a pilgrimage to your mother church (the church where you were baptized) or to our Cathedral of St. James (the mother church of our archdiocese), you might make a pilgrimage to pray Sunday Vespers (Evening Prayer) with our parish family at St. Patrick, Tacoma at 6:00PM. See https://www.saintpats.org/parish/lent/ for more information.

Our Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Lent (B) keeps us in John’s Gospel as we pick up right after Jesus has cleansed the Temple which we heard last Sunday. Nicodemus, a good Pharisee, comes to Jesus who once again predicts his execution, his being “lifted up” like the healing snake in the desert (see Numbers 21:4-9 which we also hear for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross every September 14). Every time we gaze at a Crucifix or hold one in our hand as we pray the Rosary we are being healed by Christ who took upon himself our sinful nature which he transfigures, giving us the opportunity to experience his healing mercy. Jesus will indeed be lifted up on Calvary, mocked, and pierced as he dies on the Cross. But he will also be lifted up as his resurrected body ascends on high on the fortieth day. This might be a good time to make sure you have a Crucifix placed prominently in each room of your house where you gaze upon the one who heals us of our alienation from God. As we hear from the Gospel of John in these remaining Sundays of Lent, during Holy Week, and Easter Week you might want to set aside some time to read the whole Gospel of John. For years I have used the 2003 Gospel of John film (the one with Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus) since it narrates word for word the Good News Bible translation without additions or omissions.

As I mentioned last week there is some variation in the selection of texts proclaimed at Mass on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent in different parishes. For example, I will be at St. James Cathedral for this Fourth Sunday of Lent accompanying an O’Dea sophomore who is in his final days of preparing for Christian initiation at the Easter Vigil. Josiah and all the Elect will listen to the proclamation of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind (John 9) as part of the Church’s celebration of their Scrutiny (which always use the Year A readings). The experience of this examination prepares not only the Elect for Holy Baptism but also provokes each of us to examine our hearts to make a good confession. You might use the Ten Commandments (as we heard last Sunday) to carry out your Examination of Conscience. Then, through the ministry entrusted to the priest, our penance and absolution, those healing prescriptions given us, set us free from the fetters of sin, unbind us from shame, and invite us to enter with wide eyes wide open into the promised land given us, so that our hearts can be a Temple cleansed for the presence of God to dwell in us as we are invited to share in Holy Communion.

This Sunday, unrelated to Laetare Sunday, also sees us changing our clocks with Daylight Saving Time, “springing forward.” While the latter is not an ecclesial event—though it may make you late to Mass if we’re not prepared—it does raise an important point about our relationship with time which is also taken up in the first unit of the most recent online course which I’m facilitating, “The Liturgical Year: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?” https://tinyurl.com/yfwzuff6 developed by Notre Dame liturgical theologian Dr. Tim O’Malley. O’Malley started off our course reflecting on how our modern, post-industrial world seeks to control time, to make time a quantified commodity that can be exchanged for some other good—usually money. Our desire to control, manipulate, and make full use of time as a resource seeks to avoid the reality of transience, decay, and other unpleasant experiences (like the Cross). Our modern age accelerates change and tends to increase anxiety as we’re constantly looking for novelty through what Pope Francis calls “rapidification” (Laudato Si’, 18). The logic of quantitative time requires us to produce more, be novel, and chase endless stimuli all of which spirals us ever faster and faster while leaving us less able to find a stable center. For the Christian, though, “the medicine of leisure” (Joseph Pieper, Happiness and Contemplation) can rescue us from this treadmill. The gift of Sabbath can grant us freedom from busyness. The goal of Christian life is contemplation, to be timelessly in the presence of God. In this regard the quality of our time and accepting each given moment as a unique, unrepeatable, and non-fungible gift to encounter God is a precondition for worship. The seven-day week, with a day set aside for worship of God alone, is in fact the first gift God gives his chosen people and becomes the outward mark of their relationship with God. Long before and long after a Temple served as a place for faithful Jews to worship God, God himself set apart (made holy, sanctified) a time for worship. Lent, as we heard on Ash Wednesday, is indeed “a very acceptable time” to encounter God. God has chosen to enter into space and time, not just in the Holy Land some 2000 years ago, but here and now, in this Mass at this point in your life, to meet you in his mysteries. Will you risk the loss of control and give your time over to God to encounter him anew? Can this irritant of changing our clocks to Daylight Saving Time be a gift to change how we perceive time, an occasion to shift from using time as a quantitative commodity to instead accepting time as a gift by which God draws us into eternity (Romano Guardini, Liturgy and Liturgical Formation)? Can we accept Sunday as that time to truly rest in the presence of God, to delight in him as he delights in us? As this online course continues to unfold I look forward to pulling additional elements to share with you about the history, theology, and devotional practices of the Liturgical Year.

Lastly, you all know that next Sunday is March 17. It is the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Passiontide, and, if it were not a Sunday, the memorial of St. Patrick, patron of Ireland and my confirmation saint. While the world around us may have come to associate the celebration of St. Patrick with green rivers, corned beef, stout beer, and rousing music let us not forget that St. Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland, embraced a life of radical asceticism that characterized much of Celtic Christianity and laid down his life to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who once held him as a slave. I will share more about St. Patrick and other holy men oas I review our sanctoral next week; however, you might want to add to your watching queue The Secret of Kells (2009) for a family movie night and check out this 11’ video about the life of St. Patrick which I share with my students: https://youtu.be/YnJt7SvkL3g Every year my family also watches this playful retelling of St. Patrick from VeggieTales: https://youtu.be/gBhG-7pj43E

Until next week, keep up your holy Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving alms especially with the CRS Rice Bowl.

Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis,

Third Week of Lent

We hear in our First Readings and Psalm for today, the Third Sunday of Lent, the next step in our pilgrimage with the Chosen People, our short course in Salvation History. We started off Lent two weeks ago with the first covenant, the story of Noah. Last week we heard about the intense test of Abraham in the binding of his son, Isaac, the fruit of the second covenant God made with humans. On this Third Sundy of Lent we recall the central act of the Old Testament as God establishes his covenant with his chosen people through Moses at Mount Sinai following their Exodus and crossing of the Red Sea. Today or sometime this week would be a great day to make a set of tablets of the Ten Commandments and place those in your prayer corner. This would also be a great day to watch DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt if you haven’t done so as a family already this season. I have been spending time with my students helping them to understand how the Jewish feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, marked the giving of the Torah/Law. What began as one person having an intimate and life-changing encounter with God on Mount Sinai (Moses in the burning bush) has led, through Moses’ obedience, to a whole nation being set free from slavery and brought into that same intimate covenantal relationship with the Lord at the very same mountain! How much more will the one, Jesus Christ, lead to share in his same divine sonship we whom he has set free from sin through the saving waters of Holy Baptism!

In our Gospel this Sunday our pilgrimage with Jesus has also reached a summit—the Temple in Jerusalem, the place where God has chosen to dwell. Last week we received a glimpse of Jesus’ divinity as we journeyed up the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John and with them were overshadowed by that glory cloud which once filled the original Tabernacle and the subsequent Temple. With Peter, James, and John we arrive this week accompanying Jesus at the Temple Mount, the very same Mount Moriah where Abraham was told to go to offer his own beloved son. (We read in 2 Chronicles 3 that King Solomon chose this as the site for the first Temple). As we come to these central weeks of Lent the Church pauses our reading of the Gospel of Mark and provides us with the Apostle John’s account of Jesus’ time in Jerusalem. This week we begin with Jesus’ cleansing/harrowing of the Temple. We see Jesus, full of zeal for the House of the Lord, not only overturn the moneychangers who have polluted the sacred space of worship, but also him prophesying his own crucifixion and Resurrection as the necessary consequence of Israel’s failure to uphold their end of the covenants. Jesus is fully the priest and prophet. Jesus goes even further and proposes that his own body is the true Temple. It is in him that the glory cloud abides as he is God incarnate. And the Pharisees are having none of it thus setting the stage for our soon entering with Jesus his Passiontide. You might this week make a model of the Jerusalem Temple and place that in your prayer corner as well! Some project blocks of Legos (or even a printout from Minecraft) would be great. See this video from The Bible Project https://youtu.be/wTnq6I3vUbU and this visual representation of the Second Temple: https://youtu.be/QQQyNVw8Pf4 for more inspiration. Our teens have been learning about their bodies likewise being created to become Temples of the Holy Spirit, the place where God desires to abide, to pitch his tent, and dwell in our hearts. This Theology of the Body reminds ys that what we do with our bodies matter because bodies matter to God!

The aforementioned readings will be proclaimed today at St. John Vianney but some other parishes may be hearing the Year A readings which include the account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4) as called for with the celebration of the First Scrutiny for the Elect. Join me in praying for all our Elect through the intercession of St. Photina! Their celebration of the Scrutiny, a minor exorcism, is meant to uncover and heal whatever is impure (brought into the light) and strengthen whatever is good and upright (bearing the light to others). Seeing the way in which The Chosen brought to life this story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well and how this depiction helped those whom I was leading through the catechumenate at St. Michael several years ago was what first turned me on to The Chosen as a powerful way to open others to the Gospels: https://youtu.be/ordhsDeAt60 You might want to check out that scene of the Woman at the Well from The Chosen this week as part of your Lenten preparation for the renewal of your Holy Baptism! What is it that you are most longing for in life? What things are you longing for which only a relationship with Jesus Christ can satisfy? Pray this week for Jesus to satisfy that thirst in you. Then consider how that experience might lead you to share that Good News with others! You might then place a bowl of water in your prayer corner this week and think about the longing for water that the Israelites had as they wandered I the desert too.

In addition to these scriptural focuses and your ongoing Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving which you and your family are continuing to focus on this week, there are some notable women on the sanctoral (memorials of saints) whose example we can emulate and whose intercession we can seek as we begin Women’s History Month. If March 3 was not the Third Sunday of Lent we would mark this date as the memorial of St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955). St. Katharine Drexel was the heiress of a large Philadelphia fortune and spent her money and time on serving the poor. On a family trip to the West she became aware of the plight of the indigenous peoples and gave her life over to what was then known as the Black and Indian Missions. St. Katharine founded Xavier College of Louisiana, the only Historically Black and Catholic college in the U.S. St. Katharine Drexel was the second American to be canonized a saint! On Thursday, March 7, we remember the martyrs St. Perpetua and St. Felicity. Both were killed for their Christian faith in 203 in Carthage, North Africa and, while many martyrs are known only by their names, St. Perpetua wrote of the persecution facing her and fellow catechumens. Eyewitnesses to their martyrdom completed the account of their martyrdom which circulated among early Christians and gives us a powerful example of faithfulness in the midst of persecution. These two holy women, St. Perpetua the wealthy Carthaginian (probably Berber), and her servant, St. Felicity, are included in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I). On Friday, March 8, is the optional memorial of St. John of the Cross; however, I am going to focus on that as the day the film Cabrini debuts in cinemas. Check out he trailer here: https://youtu.be/lihCRaOj0Lg Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) was not only the first U.S. citizen to become a saint but also her fingerprints are all over Seattle from St. James Cathedral and the medical complexes that now dot First Hill to educational institutions (such as Villa Academy) and charitable organizations serving immigrants. The Northwest Catholic recently ran an article about her: https://tinyurl.com/5hbcec6u I would hope that the buzz around Cabrini and its release on International Women’s Day (March 8) would be a good way for us to be challenged to never underestimate the power of those whom God has called to serve him, to encourage us to care for the poor with even greater courage, and be on occasion for each of us to share about our faith and how God has called us with those who do not yet know Christ. Finally, on Saturday, March 9, we keep the memory of St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440). St. Frances of Rome was a wife, mother who buried two of her sons who died of the plague, widow, and patroness of Benedictine oblates. St. Frances of Rome served the poor of Rome and has left a legacy of her mystical writings during a time in the early 15^th century when lay spirituality was growing. Each of these holy women loved Jesus with all their hearts and from that love overcame obstacles and cared for the poor in their midst. From St. Photina who encountered Jesus at the Well in Sychar to St. Katharine Drexel who found him among the disenfranchised African Americans in the U.S. nearly two millennia later, we see in their unique charisms a response not of despair but of unwavering love. How can this Lenten season lead you and me to do the same? How can we as a parish show forth to our wider Vashon community this same kind of love which overcomes oppression and conquers fear? What concrete steps in our pilgrimage can we take by moving toward the margins and becoming a Church, a bride of Christ, fit for the poor?

Transfigured by Lent

Every Sunday in the liturgical year has a proper Entrance Antiphon (Introit) assigned to it. (I discussed liturgical “propers” more fully back in an Advent column). In the major seasons of the year, such as Lent and Eastertide, we sometimes give each Sunday a name based on its Introit (like Gaudete Sunday for the Third Sunday of Advent or Quasimodo Sunday for the Second Sunday of Easter). These Introits set the tone, quite literally, for the day. The Entrance Antiphon (Introit) for today, “Of you my heart has spoken” (Psalm 27). On this Second Sunday of Lent not only do we hear the Father’s voice speaking to his beloved Son but also we hear “with the ears of our heart” the Father speaking to each of us, his adopted children through Holy Baptism, telling us that we are his beloved sons and daughters. The Father’s heart is for us. He speaks to bring forth life and renewal of life in us. It is the Holy Spirit, the breath of the Father, which drives Jesus into the desert and it is the same Holy Spirit who draws us into the desert each Lent where, free from distractions, we can be quiet enough to hear the Father speak in our hearts. It is here, in the stillness of the desert, that the Father seeks to woo us back to himself (Hosea). From the wilderness the Father is speaking his words to your heart, to my heart, to lead you and me up the mountain of Transfiguration whereupon he reveals his and our truest identity. As we continue our climb toward Easter don’t be too hard on yourself if those Lenten promises you made aren’t going as perfectly as you hoped. God is fighting for and alongside you so that you can enter the Promised Land; God is faithful to his covenants and never gives up on those who turn toward him, those who turn around and repent (Luke 15). Today’s Entrance Antiphon is also the motto of our Archbishop Emeritus Peter Sartain and I’ll provide below a connection to another great spiritual leader in the Church.

I mentioned in last week’s column the short course of salvation history through which Lent takes is an opportunity to go deeper into The Bible Timeline and I suggested your family might, each week, make a symbol representing each of the covenants and enthrone them in your prayer corner. This Sunday we hear about the covenant God establishes with Abraham so making a ram or a model stone altar with wood on it would capture well the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22). You might also read the whole of Genesis 22 and ponder the typological connections between this troubling Old Testament event and the love the Father and the Son reveal for each other and for all people in the forthcoming Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our Gospel this Second Sunday of Lent is the account of the Transfiguration from Mark’s Gospel (Year B). This is another of those moments in the life of Jesus as he journeys toward Jerusalem that is so important that we hear one of the synoptic accounts every year on the Second Sunday of Lent and also have a whole Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6. It would be hard to overstate the importance of this moment in shaping Jesus’ disciples—including you and me—as we begin to see the new world that Jesus which is inaugurating, a world bathed in the light of his glory, a world as God intended it. I really encourage you to spend time this week pondering an icon of the Transfiguration. Try to lose yourself in its gaze upon you and allow yourself to be drawn into gazing on Jesus, the beloved Son of whom the Father’s heart has spoken. For me pondering the Transfiguration awakened a new chapter in my spiritual life fifteen years ago.

Transfiguration Icon, St. James Cathedral, Seattle

I invite you also to pray, by name, for the Elect as they prepare to be initiated into Christ. If you don’t know any Elect please join me in praying for Josiah, an O’Dea sophomore, whom I am blessed to be accompanying up this Lenten mountain toward Easter. If you don’t have an Elect to accompany I encourage you to pray by name for someone whom you could invite to journey toward Christ with you as her or his guide. Who is someone you know who longs to see the face of Jesus and who might be open to partake of his divine life if only someone would invite her or him? What is a first step you might take to have a conversation with her or him about what they’re really longing for in life? Are you willing to reveal your heart to her or him and share with her or him the love of the Father who desires to speak to her or his heart?

As I mentioned last week the the sanctoral (the calendar of feasts and saint’s memorials) is rather sparse during Lent so that we can spend time focusing on our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and our holy reading. A notable exception this week is the optional memorial of St. Gregory Narek (on Tuesday, February 27), the most recently named Doctor of the Church. St. Gregory of Narek (c. 950 -1005) was an Armenian monk and mystic. His writings, especially The Book of Lamentations is considered the gold standard of lyrical Armenian poetry, like Shakespeare to we English speaker, but also a spiritual classic from the Christian East akin to Thomas a Kempis or even St. Augustine of Hippo in the West. As St. Gregory of Narek pondered God’s grace and his participation in the sacramental life on the shores of Lake Van he penned 100 verses that all begin “Words unto God from the depths of my heart…” Indeed it is not only the Father whose heart speaks of the Son and of us, his beloved, but when our hearts are fixed on God we too ring out that praise and our hearts speak only of God and his wonderful things he has done for us. This might be a good time to learn about the oldest Christian kingdom in the world, Armenia, and the rich tradition of Armenian Christians, the terrible events of recent history, and pray for all those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. St. Gregory of Narek, pray for us!

First Week of Lent

It is the First Sunday of Lent and we have set out on our Lenten pilgrimage toward Easter. Lent, as we know, has a two-fold character: 1) to prepare by purification and enlightenment those who will be fully initiated at Easter (by means of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist) and 2) for those of us who are already baptized and reborn in Christ to prepare by works of penance to renew that cleansing grace once given us in our Holy Baptism. Let us all therefore set out with resolve to climb this mountain toward Easter!

Everything we do in Lent is marked by this journeying or pilgrimage context. In this installment I’ll provide an overview of these pilgrimages covering the whole season of Lent (these Forty Days) and look some details of this First Week of Lent.

The whole of the season of Lent is like a short course in salvation history. In the First Readings of each Sunday of Lent we hear about the pilgrimage of the chosen people and open our souls to make a parallel journey. We being with the 1) covenant God made with all living things through Noah which is a recapitulation of creation itself but here is filled with the waters of God’s cleansing mercy. Next week we hear the foundational 2) covenant God makes with Abraham our father in faith through his sacrifice and trust in God. On the Third Sundy of Lent we hear the central act of the Old Testament, 3) the covenant God makes with his chosen people through Moses at Mount Sinai following their Exodus and crossing of the Red Sea and before their wandering in the desert for forty years thirsting for God. The story of salvation history continues the subsequent week when we hear on Laetare Sunday about 4) God taking up his home in the Temple as it is dedicated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem by King David’s son, King Solomon. Finally, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear about 5) God’s promise to establish a New Covenant in every human heart from the Prophet Jeremiah who is the great prophet of hope for the return of the captives from Exile. Studying The Bible Timeline (which is now part of the Ascension app) would be appropriate to do during Lent to expand on this “short course” as we seek to meet God in prayerful meditation on his mighty deeds in salvation history. You might, each week, make a symbol representing each of the covenants and enthrone them in your prayer corner. Also, check out: https://youtu.be/6v4jKkFj3TI

In the Gospels of each Sunday of Lent we hear about Jesus’ pilgrimage towards Jerusalem. Each week brings him one step closer to his enthronement on the Cross and reveals Jesus, true God and true man, as the faithful one who fulfills the covenants which sinful humanity alone had been unable to keep (see above). We start off this Sunday with 1) Jesus’ temptation in the desert to which he retreated for forty days after his Baptism at the River Jordan—historically on the very spot where Joshua lead the people into the Promised Land and where Elijah was take up into heaven. On this First Sunday of Lent we invoke the intercession of all the saints to journey with us and with the elect, those men and women who will be initiated into Christ at Easter. I will be accompanying Josiah, an O’Dea sophomore, on Saturday as he offers his name for Enrollment and is numbered among the elect by Archbishop Etienne during this Rite of Election. Recall that this experience of the Elect, as they journey from outside the Church toward the font of rebirth, is the origin of the season of Lent. So next week, on the Second Sunday of Lent, 2) Jesus calls these chosen ones to come away (retreat) with him, to be set apart (made holy), and with them we witness Jesus transfigured (see but not yet partake of this same glory). Jesus thus gives his disciples—and us—our reason and hope to set out on this journey with him as he makes his way toward Jerusalem, his destiny. This is a special foretaste for the elect before being driven further into their three spiritual trials. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent switch from Mark (Year B) to the Gospel of John (used on most of our highest holy days and in this year because Mark is so much shorter!) to hear Jesus’ teachings prophesying his own death as the 3) Temple destroyed to be rebuilt, 4) his being “lifted up” like the healing snake in the desert, and 5) the grain of wheat buried to rise again. Jesus’ journey thus fulfilled and retraced the contours of the chosen people’s journey of salvation history and makes that same story of his Paschal Mystery—his life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension—open to us.

On these Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent the Elect (people preparing for Christian initiation) undergo their Scrutinies. These are minor exorcisms meant to uncover and heal whatever is impure (brought into the light) and strengthen whatever is good and upright (bearing the light to others). It is from their experience of purification and enlightenment that the whole character or flavor Lenten penitential practices derive and by which each of us is invited to grow into closer union with Christ. The experience of these examinations prepare not only the Elect for Holy Baptism but they also invite each of us to examine our hearts and make a good confession. Our penance and absolution, healing prescriptions given us, set us free from the fetters of sin, unbind us from shame, and invite us to enter into the promised land given us, so that we can be a Temple cleansed for the presence of God to dwell in us as we share in Holy Communion. While these Forty Days first emerged to train the Elect, Lent is indeed “the very acceptable time” each year to renew our life in Christ through ongoing conversion, turning anew (repentance, metanoia) to seek his face.

During Lent the sanctoral, the calendar of feasts and saint’s memorials, has fewer entries so that we can spend time with the season of Lent itself. In a way it is like the Church is telling us that it is enough to slow down, pay close attention to this short course of salvation history, how it is fulfilled in Christ, and open our hearts to be made participants in his very life through our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As I mentioned last week, I find that the CRS Rice Bowl and recipe calendar is a wonderful way to bring this down to the earth and keep it front and center on our dining room table. One notable exception this week is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter on February 22. While St. Peter and St. Paul share a solemnity in June, we noted last month the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25) and here we keep a uniquely Petrine Feast of the Chair of St. Peter (February 22). This is not so much about a piece of sacred furniture—although one can visit the relic of the cathedra of St. Peter in his namesake basilica in the Vatican in Rome. This feast, celebrated in Rome since at least the fourth century, is rather about the rock of St. Peter’s Confession and of the unity of Church as safeguarded by the successors of St. Peter, the popes. While my family has not done any special home celebrations for this day it might be a good day to explore the importance of the pope, bishops, and apostolic succession especially in the writing of Pope St. Leo the Great which we find in the Office of Readings for the feast. The subsequent day, Friday, February 23, is the memorial of St. Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John and friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch. The written account of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, who was bishop in Smyrna until he was executed for his Christian faith in 155, is oldest record of martyrdom outside the New Testament itself.

One of the fruitful prayer practices to which the Catholic faithful have turned and which is important to keep in your family’s devotions during Lent is the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis). Originating in two distinct practices of pilgrimage, one in Rome and another in the Holy Land, the Stations of the Cross didn’t take its final form with fourteen stations (stops) until the 17^th century. This is a helpful overview from Fr. Casey Cole, OFM at his YouTube channel Catholicism in Focus: https://youtu.be/KR5hXcwELVY During the Lenten season we recall Jesus’ pilgrimaging from Galilee to Jerusalem (as, for example, we hear in each of the various verses of Cooney’s “Jerusalem, My Destiny”) and, then in micro focus during Holy Week, his journey from the gate of Jerusalem to mount his throne on Calvary, before his final journey from the grave to ascend on high. Christians have for nearly two thousand years made pilgrimage to the Holy Land to retrace the steps of Jesus as he bore his Cross and our sins along through the streets of Jerusalem which became known as the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sadness) or Via Crucis. Christians who couldn’t make a pilgrimage or who had and wanted to bring home something of the experience they had on pilgrimage began processing from one church to another in their hometown. In Rome this gave rise to the practice of stational churches. Every day in Lent in the Roman Missal we find a heading “ad stationem S. thus-and-such” indicating at which distinct church the pontifical (pope’s) Mass would be celebrated that day. The procession would begin at the church where the pontifical Mass was held the day before and then go to the Church of the day. During the pandemic The Catholic Traveler, an American convert to Catholicism and pilgrimage leader in Rome, took his daughters to each of the stational churches and recorded YouTube videos of the churches. If you want to follow along the Roman stational churches check out

Lent really is indeed a good time to make pilgrimages to different churches. In the Middle Ages lengthy pilgrimages to the shrines of saints were sometimes even given as penances. This Lent might be the “very acceptable time” for you and your family to visit the churches with whom St. John Vianney has been named Partners in the Gospel: St. Patrick and Holy Cross in Tacoma. Or maybe to stop and pray at the site of the former St. Patrick Church in Dockton and read about the church bell now in Dockton Park? Or you might visit the oldest extant Catholic church in our diocese, the Steilacoom mission, or schedule a visit to the St. Peter Mission on Suquamish lands (where Chief Seattle is interred), the mission in Toledo (with the Catholic ladder), a tour of St. James Cathedral in Seattle or the protocathedral in Vancouver, or even Calvary of Holy Rood cemeteries. What other churches might you add to the list? Perhaps a parish church where you were baptized or received your subsequent sacraments where you can share with others how God has been at work in your life? Maybe there is a holy site where you encountered Jesus in a profound or intimate way which plays an important part in your own salvation history? Perhaps it was at a retreat center or school chapel that God revealed himself to you and where you can return to give thanks?

Finally, I have heard from a few of you that the movie suggestions I have given are welcomed but I’ve also heard that I ought to have included a clearer caveat to preview anything I mention (not even so much recommend!) before watching with your family as not every film which wrestles with faith is appropriate for all ages. That said, I have for many years enjoyed watching the Russian film Ostrov (The Island, 2006) near the beginning of Lent as it showcases the penitential practices of a Russian monk as he seeks to atone for his past and make his own very peculiar journey of holiness. Lastly, since Exodus is the Lenten story par excellence you may want to watch Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt (1998) with your whole family sometime in early Lent. What Lenten movies do you and your family find helpful? What other practices have you found that help you keep this season of spiritual growth?