Dear Ones

March 26, 2025

Dear Ones,

This weekend we celebrate Laetare or Joyful Sunday. That is why your priests’ vestments are the color rose. That has been seen as the color for joy. The stained-glass window over the St. Patrick window is the Wedding Feast at Cana and Jesus is in a rose robe. He’s happy to be there!

So often we can feel that Lent is a time for sacrificial drudgery. It isn’t supposed to be. Instead, we are called to learn how many things there are that we can live without. And often, much better without. The Church asks us to be mindful, this middle week of Lent, to the essential joy we must proclaim as we try to get closer to God.

I had hoped that this week we would have a Parish Retreat with my classmate, Father John Tuohey leading us on our journey. Sadly, Fr. John’s mother has been hospitalized, and he wants to stay with her. While I was away in January, she cooked Sunday Dinner for us which ended with the best apple pie I have every eaten. Since she’s up in her 90’s she’s had a lot of practice.

Father Steven and I will be leading the retreat. In it we will look at the Sacraments of Healing- the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. I will lead off on Monday and give the same talk twice (11 AM & 7 PM) about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Fr. Steven will follow up on Wednesday with two sessions about the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. In between, on Tuesday evening at 7, we will be welcoming some priests of our Deanery to join us in a Reconciliation Service where you will be offered the opportunity for Confession.

I pray your Lent is going well. If it isn’t, try again at our retreat! 

God bless,  Fr. T Davis