7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parish Family,

Lent is quickly approaching! In the old days (up to about sixty years ago), there was a period of pre-Lent that began on the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday. This mini-season was known as Septuagesima, meaning roughly seventy days (before Easter). It was a time that eased the faithful and the Church as a whole into the intensity of Lent from the joys of Christmas. Traditionally, that period would have begun this past Sunday, and this Sunday would be known as Sexagesima, or (as you may have guessed) sixty days before Easter. So, it’s not too soon to begin speaking of Lent!

You will notice in our bulletin this week a whole calendar of events for the Lenten Season. We will begin on March 5 with Ash Wednesday. This is not a holy day of obligation, but it is very appropriate to attend to get the season started off well. I think that we as Catholics instinctively know this; it’s probably the best-attended day outside of the main holydays of Christmas and Easter. But I digress…

Please take a look at our schedule of events for this Lent. Note some special celebrations coming up in March: the Solemnity of St. Joseph on the 19th, and the Solemnity of the Annunciation on the 25th. You won’t want to miss those! Also of note, we will be having a teaching series running throughout Lent on Fridays. This will be tied into the ancient devotion of the Stations of the Cross and our appropriately light Lenten meals following.

Lent can be (and is meant to be) a particularly transformative time. I pray that our offerings this year can help with that, as well as help us to begin living a more richly integrated life of faith, allowing the Liturgical Year, with its ebb and flow of feasting and fasting, to be the pulse that animates our life as a parish.

Peace.

-Fr. Kennell