Lent IV – Laetare
Bp. Dolan preaches a meditative sermon on the Holy Face, visible in the right of this photo. (Click photo to enlarge).
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Daily Sermons
February 29 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Oswald, The Leap Day Saint
March 1 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Thou Shalt Gain Thy Brother
March 2 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Shimchong The Blind Man’s Daughter
March 3 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Cunegunda and the Trial By Fire
March 4 – Bp. Dolan – The Five Holy Wounds
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
The March winds respected Pope Gregory’s Calendar and held off an extra day this Leap Year until Tuesday. But that afternoon they blew in with great force, like the proverbial lion. Sun and snow both featured in our latest miniwinter, but Spring is scheduled for Laetare, Rose Sunday today. Rejoice! Easter is near. Rejoice and take up the battle tomorrow with renewed energy.
Today is the English Mother’s Day, Mothering Sunday, so called from the Epistle. We’re observing it as Sisters’ Sunday, rejoicing to have the blessing of sisters again at our church. Thank you to all of you who supported this endeavor, and thank you for your prayers, and presence, and practical help, dear Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Reparation. The Mexicans call all nuns Madre, Mother. A beautiful custom.
Thank you for your prayers for my Mexican trip, which went very well. These are always tiring but energizing affairs. We have so much at St. Gertrude the Great. It’s good to get out each month and share the wealth. Of course, thanks to the wonders of modern communication, this can be and is, done every day. “The word goes forth.” God bless the angels of the internet. “Unto all the earth.” Still, we should be sensible of all we do have, and of all those souls who don’t, and show ourselves generous and grateful.
Have you seen Fr. Cekada’s latest video, “Archbishop Lefebvre, Sedevacantist”? It’s already a big hit, and doing an important work to prepare souls to see the illogic, the dangers of the non-Catholic “R&R” position. They say that Bergoglio will simply recognize the Pius X Society, as the best way to assure they will no longer resist him. He wants a dogma free church anyway, teeming with confusion, with absolute freedom of thought and belief. This means slavery, of course.
This makes me think of the “elections” which serve to distract and enslave Americans every four years with a deep layer of lies. Alas! Brought to you, your home, your iPad, by the same means which also bring Catholic truth and worship. So, turn it off! Would you be missing anything? Uh-uh. “If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” – Mark Twain.
The Duke sent his servants out into our lands last week to cut brush and trees from our territory in favor of the electric lines. I rather regret the loss of privacy. The saws buzzed all day, and the cats were not at all pleased. The poor workers were working outside in all weathers. The cats opted in to relish the relative silence within. Better for napping.
I stepped out into the sunshine the other afternoon, thinking I had time to slip in a decade before my 5 o’clock Mass, and was greeted with a wave from a friendly lady who drove up to the door. She’s an “Apostolic,” part of the Protestant group which purchased our dear old church in Sharonville, and had kindly offered to drop off some of our mail, sent to the wrong address. We got talking, and she remarked on certain similarities with the Catholic Church in their catechism. I told her she was Apostolic and we were Catholic, and that we really should get together. She reminded me they have an “apostle” but I said I’m only a bishop! Interesting. A very kind lady.
In any case, the mail was a mixed bag. There was a notification of a Novus Ordo Confirmation in Covington in November of a child baptized at St. Getrude the Great. What a loss! God forgive the parents. But on the other hand there was a slew of checks someone had generously been sending, but to the old address. Gain and loss. Time and eternity.
This is the last “quiet” week of Lent before things get popping, so go be quiet in some corner and pray. Plenty of quiet corners in our church most days! You could easily claim a pew or two all for yourself for stations and daily Mass, and visits and Benediction. Oh, don’t forget St. Thomas Aquinas, Angel of the Schools, patron of all Catholic Schools and theologians, tomorrow.
But this week is not so quiet for Fr. McKenna, who travels to Quito, Ecuador for Mass and a Conference on true Catholicism. Please pray for our missionary who is trading the frozen north for the elevated Andes. May he shed a little light in the benighted heights of Our Lady of Quito, the very headquarters of R&R Catholicism.
Next week is already Passiontide, and St. Patrick and the Seven Sorrows and St. Joseph. Then comes the Great Week, Holy Week, and Easter. So, make this week count.
I apologize if I got you up an hour late for Sunday Mass! (Some of you leave no time to spare, anyway, especially since we’ve mostly cancelled the cushion club.) Some years we get confused with Daylight Saving Time, but it is indeed next Sunday. These artificial jiggerings of the clock are hard to keep track of. But I hope there was no harm done.
So, we’ve lost an hour and gained a day, all in one week. How precious should each hour be, each day, each week. Use them for God, for eternity. Ask St. Joseph, the worker’s friend, to bless your use of time this March, his month. It’s a crucial one.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
—Bishop Dolan