Lent IV – Laetare Sunday

St. Therese and the Holy Face
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
Article by Fr. Lehtoranta

zelusdomustuae
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
St. Joseph’s month got off to an excellent start. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many for First Saturday. Father had to break hosts and still he ran out. So many beautiful Communions of Reparation. Although the entire service does run long, as it includes final devotions and some suggested meditation thoughts, nobody ran out, but many stayed to complete the requested “company keeping” with Our Lady.

Helfta Hall was full for the Tea Party. It ran long, but the speaker was engaging and offered some great insights. The meeting opens with a prayer. It is interesting to consider how Protestants pray. After the salutation, the Lord is informed about one or two items of current events (kind of a recap) and then a suggested course of action is presented, ending with a hearty “Amen.”

I’m writing this on Mid-Lent Day, last Thursday. We’re meant to rejoice that Easter approaches, but often have occasion to reproach ourselves for a slovenly and selfindulgent Lent. Too much self, not enough sacrifice. Thank God He sends His Son to take away our sins, for even whose remnants we don’t do much in the way of atoning.

Stay close to St. Joseph. What our possibilities don’t obtain, may his intercession grant us, we pray. Friday is his feast, and the High Mass features the traditional Blessing of Bread, the evening a wonderful supper and a time of recollection.

And who could forget St. Patrick? Three Masses Wednesday morning honor him, the last with beautiful Irish music. It’s nostalgic anymore, of course. Ireland is consumed by Communism, and the Church and the Mass are banished from its shores, as if they were serpents. What the Protestant English could not achieve in three centuries, sixty years of Modernism and thirty of prosperity easily accomplished. Spare them a prayer today. May the snakes be banished from their land.

Remember, with gratitude, the power of prayer. When all the fuss started last March we prayed. Every day there was a special Collect, and almost as often a hymn against “the threefold plague,” Adoration all night, and many at daily Mass. Not one case of “Covid,” and not one missed Mass. We were entirely protected. We resisted the lies, and were spared from the virus. Thanks be to God, our loving Father, and to the Blessed Mother, whose care for us is unceasing. The Avenging Angel flew over.

Thanks be as well for cheering cooks and nourishing Lenten meals. It was looking pretty lean earlier, but Providence always provides.

Ah, one little word on our echo chamber. Fr. Cekada designed the church for its splendid musical acoustics. Sound echoes. So if you’re visiting in the vestibule during Mass or Adoration, your voices or innocent mirth will carry. Please be considerate. Speak softly, or even adjourn to outside or Helfta Hall. It’s easy to forget, and sound does carry. For once it’s adults and not the babies. The children are smiling.

Enjoy the early Spring. Romantic minded robins are hopping about. Bunnies are back, multiplying like rabbits. Some of the blessed pansies persevered through winter, I think, and crocuses have popped their purple heads out to signal Spring.

But most of all rejoice that Easter approaches, and that we still have three weeks to “make good” our Lent, which is meant to make us good. Be generous. It must last a year!

God bless you and St. Joseph protect your family and our country from the wicked who seek our ruin.
– Bishop Dolan