Septuagesima
Solemn Mass of the Epiphany. Fr. Mardones, Celebrant; Fr. McGuire, Deacon; Fr. McKenna, Subdeacon. Bp. Dolan and Fr. Lehtoranta look on.
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Daily Sermons
January 18 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Peter and the Tailor in Heaven
January 19 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Fr. Potapy of Karelia
January 20 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Henry and the White Harvest
January 21 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Agnes and Her Example to Children
January 22 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Gratitude to God for Our Life
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Winter arrived last week, right on time for the traditional Chair of Unity Octave, and January 22’s prolife devotions. How cold—and slippery—are those who kill our babies, and the faith of the innocent throughout the world.
Still, we are grateful to have had most of our Christmas with mild weather, and good attendance, and grateful too for the beauty the ice and snow bring with them. But so cold! Ice and snow, bless the Lord.
Blessings to Fr. Cekada and Fr. Lehtoranta who stay behind this week while the rest of us decamp to Tampa for the annual Seminary Retreat. A retreat furnishes much needed silence and prayer for priests and seminarians, the recharging of spiritual batteries for our busy clergy. The warm weather doesn’t hurt. I’ll be back Friday.
But today’s purple vestments spell spring on the Church’s calendar. We are counting the days until an early, March Easter, and count seventy today. In two and a half weeks Lent will arrive. Let it not catch you unaware. This is our planning period. Think penance and prayer in the light of Christmas.
Next week we get a foretaste of Holy Week with the Mass of the Candles and its little procession on February 2. Don’t miss it, and our Winter Soup Supper—always lots of fun—along with Mardi Gras thrown in for good measure. That Friday will be the first of February with its All Night Adoration, praying for a good Lent. Then the real thing arrives with ashes for all on Wednesday, February 10th.
Fr. Cekada has produced another entertaining video about a deadly serious subject (The Pope Speaks, YOU Decide). Be sure to watch these educational offerings, and send them to others. Such a change in the Faith has occurred over the past fifty years. The religion of V2 has changed everything, and it is the job of Francis to put it all into practice. The R&R/SSPX folks bend—and break—the faith to make it fit both the modern mold and the old, Catholic doctrines they’ve chosen to keep. What confusion. Even traditionalists have modernistic, heterodox ideas about church, papacy, and infallibility. Our sermon series on the faith comes at a good time, then. Read, study and most of all pray for a strong Faith daily.
Friday is the feast of our patron saint here in Cincinnati, St. Francis de Sales. He knew how to combine gentle, winning affability with uncompromising orthodoxy. We need his intercession, and example, today.
Fr. Cekada had an impromptu animal blessing close to St. Anthony’s Day last week at school. The children turned out to watch as he blessed of couple of labs for a former parishioner. Very friendly—the dogs as well as the former parishioner. Fr. Cekada is getting a name for himself as a dog blesser. He is taking care of the cats this week. He says that Caravaggio eventually warms up to him after a day or two, and might even do a lap visit.
Well, blessings upon you for this last week of January, and of Christmastime. Did you ever get around to bringing the Epiphany blessing to your home?
God bless you!
-Bishop Dolan