Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

We are entering into the high holy days of our Catholic Church. Holy Week is a special time of the year in our faith as we travel with our Lord through his passion and death, and we rejoice with his Resurrection. W e read the Passion account twice this week; first on Palm Sunday (from Matthew, Mark or Luke depending on the year A or B or C cycle; this year is St. Matthew) and second on Good Friday, which is always from St. John ’s Gospel. We have the normal three weekly Masses on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

My Dear Friends,

Today’s gospel reading is the raising of Lazarus. He is from Bethany and is the brother of Martha and Mary. It is at the tomb of Lazarus that St. John wrote the most moving line of Sacred Scripture. “Jesus wept.” The depth of his emotion, which he shows right before he raises Lazarus from the dead, shows a side of his humanity in the gospel that has many instances of showing his divinity.

My Dear Friends,

We are more than halfway through Lent, approaching Easter Sunday. W ithin the Lenten season, we have two solemnities in our liturgical calendar, St. Joseph and the Annunciation. These two solemnities, in other countries, are holy days of obligation. In the United States, they are not holy days of obligation. But these two solemnities are very important. St. Joseph said yes to the Father in taking Mary, who conceived by the Holy Spirit, into his home and become the foster father of Jesus.

My Dear Friends,

Since the reform of the Liturgy in 1970, the Catholic Church went from a one year cycle of Sunday readings to a three year cycle of Sunday readings. Basically, before 1970 and for over 1500 years, the one year cycle meant that you would hear the same readings every year on that particular Sunday. Now, it takes three years for you to hear the same reading on any particular Sunday. This year we are reading from cycle A, so on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent we read from the Gospel of John. (If during the years of cycle B and C, if we have catechumens coming into the church, we read from cycle A).

My Dear Friends,

Just as every first Sunday of Lent we read about Jesus' being tempted in the desert, every second Sunday of Lent is the account of the Transfiguration. This one today is from the Gospel of Matthew. The Transfiguration is an important event in the life of Jesus and the apostles in the gospel. We even celebrate the Transfiguration liturgically every August 6th as a feast day of the Lord.

My Dear Friends,

This Sunday we hear about the temptations in the desert. After Jesus was baptized, he went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Jesus shows us how to combat temptations. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can fight temptations too by using Sacred Scripture. We have also been given grace through the Church's sacraments to also strengthen us against temptation.

My Dear Friends,

We are a couple days away from Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Ashes are a sacramental; sacramentals are supposed to lead us into the sacraments. For this reason, I offer ashes during the celebration of Mass instead of just a liturgy of the word service. Ashes are important, but nothing is more important than worshipping God and receiving his Son in the Holy Eucharist.

My Dear Friends,

On the first week of Advent, we began the chalice for vocations program. We have been asking parishioners to volunteer to bring home a chalice and pray for vocations for the week in your home. Having the chalice at home (on your desk, coffee table, counter, kitchen or dining room table, nightstand, dresser etc.) is a visible reminder of the importance to pray for laborers for the harvest for the harvest is great and laborers are few.

My Dear Friends,

Today's gospel passage from St. Matthew is the beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Jesus begins with the Beatitudes before he gives us the more difficult teachings which we will hear in the next two weeks, leading us into the Lenten season. The Beatitudes are not things we seek to do; rather they are blessings given to us because we live the gospel message (blessed are those who hear the word of God and act on it) And as beautiful as these beatitudes are, there is none more beautiful than the one that we will hear right before Holy Communion.

My Dear Friends,

Today's Gospel passage from St. Matthew is the call of the two sets of brothers as Apostles, St. Peter and St. Andrew, and St. John and St. James. These four apostles are fishermen, and Jesus says to them that he will make them fishers of men. A fisher of men means that Jesus is giving authority to his followers to preach the good news and to heal the sick. The same authority he gave to the apostles is the same authority he gives to his priests.

My Dear Friends,

Today I want to focus on our altar servers. The young men and women and young boys and girls do a fantastic job helping the priest and the deacon at the altar. For centuries, the roles that these servers provide were performed by adult men, who wore the black cassock with a white surplice. The black cassock is a clerical garment. In the traditional Mass, clerics were divided into seven orders; porter, exorcist, lector, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest. After the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. Paul VI suppressed the four minor orders and the subdiaconate and made the ministry of lector and acolyte as an instituted ministry.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which also ends the Christmas season. Jesus was baptized by St. John in the Jordan. By being baptized, Jesus blesses all water and makes it holy. Besides sacraments, our Catholic faith also has rich tradition of sacramentals. A sacramental is something blessed and is meant to lead us deeper into our faith and prepare us for the sacraments. Holy water is one such sacramental.

My Dear Friends,

Continuing with last week's bulletin letter, we are still in the Christmas season. The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on January 1st was the end of the Christmas octave. The Christmas season has two more weeks, normally, after the New Year. The Solemnity of the Epiphany is celebrated in many countries on January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas, and for many cultures and for many centuries is a more important feast day than Christmas.