Dear Parishioners and Friends,
“At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping, where he hung her dying son.”
Lent is the Church’s great season of fasting, penitence, and mortification. We are reminded that we are, “but dust,” and throughout our lives are always in need of repentance and God’s forgiveness. Mortality looms large at this time. We contemplate our own, and pray for those we have lost. This year, the deaths of more than half a million Americans in the pandemic should cause us to prayerfully reevaluate our own lives and relationships.
Continuing a tradition we started last year at this time, we are offering an online service of stations, or “The Way of the Cross,” and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament each Friday throughout Lent. The Way of the Cross is a meditative spiritual pilgrimage to the Via Dolorosa, the way of sadness that our Lord traveled to Calvary. Along the way, certain incidents are recalled, culminating in his burial in the tomb. We travel only around the nave of the church, but if we open our hearts and the eyes of our faith, stations can be a profoundly moving devotion. Through prayer and the lens of the pandemic, we can begin to associate ourselves with Jesus’ mother’s anguish, the mocking of the soldiers, and his own agony.
We conclude with Benediction, which is a service of adoration of the Body of Christ, and a reminder that he will be with us always, even unto the end of the age.
As we continue our journey toward the cross and Good Friday, I hope that you will join me and members of our music ministry online Fridays in Lent for this soulful spiritual pilgrimage with and to our Lord.
Blessings,
Father Rick
917.658.6314
