Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

I attended the Micah Ministries Lenten Lunch prayer service this week at the United Methodist Church and Pastor Allen Fischer from the Presybterian Church was preaching. It was a treat to get to hear someone else preach for once, I am so tired of hearing myself talking all the time! (Although next week the poor folks will have to listen to me at Fredericksburg Baptist Church anyway!)

Anyway, Allen gave a beautiful homily that got me thinking more about the central reason of why we are here. He said one of the things I’ve been saying over and over these past few weeks: that the life of faith and prayer that we live is intended to perfect us as one People of God, not a bunch of individuals constantly seeking God’s attention, almost in competition with one another, focused only on ourselves and our advancement. He said it very simply, in true Presbyterian style: piety is not privatization. We are not here to isolate.

I’ve had plenty of friends who say, “I love the Church, it’s the people I can’t stand.” I’ve heard plenty of sins confessed (and am aware of plenty of my own) about how intolerant we can be of one another when others get in the way of our plans or desires—even when we call those desires spiritual—and we lose sight of the gift in front of us, talking to us, sharing our space, for a gift which we have set our sights on. It is too easy to get so wrapped up in ourselves that we totally miss the point of the present moment and those whom God has placed here with us.

Ultimately, the message is that we just aren’t as important as we’d like to think we are. Isn’t this one of the most remarkable gifts given to human beings that set us apart from other forms of life? That we can experience humility. Whether a momentary setback has caused this, or a starck realization of truth, or the compassion which might move us to help, to reach out to another human person and for that moment allow that person to be the most important thing in your life. We can choose to go last. We can set ourselves aside and recognize the value of a truth that we allow to guide us, or a love that we allow to change us.

We look to the cross in this season of Lent to unpack this mystery. How our human form is forever changed: in our lowliness God chose to reveal our high destiny by his divine touch, first in the incarnation, finally for each of us in baptism. We can never be unchanged, or changed back. And in that high destiny now charged with the divine and holy life of God’s Spirit we can choose, like Jesus did, like Mary did, like Joseph did, to live completely for another, to accept that once-and-for-all call that defines us by the one we serve. We see it most perfectly in Jesus’ total gift of himself on the cross.

For Mary and Joseph it is obvious. They were willing to respond to the Father’s call and dedicate themselves to Jesus. But look carefully at Jesus: he was willing to lower himself, taking upon himself our nature, so that we might be the object of his dedication, and that we might be a part of his identity, his Body, as Son of God. In him we see so quickly that lowliness is not seen as contrary to high dignity: they both co-exist. It might even be said that the high dignity of our humanity lies in its very lowliness. And lowliness is the state in which we are sanctified.

It takes a great deal of humility to be a person like Jesus, particularly when we begin to speak of forgiveness. Be sure to join us this week for our Parish Mission each night as we delve into the reality of forgiveness. It will prove to be a transformative week not only due to the talks, but due also to the special opportunities we have for prayer in the Presence of God during Forty Hours. Please come and spend time with us, and with God. May we grow deeply into his life this Lent.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Our Parish Mission with Fr. Dennis Corrado already begins next weekend! Fr. Dennis will join us for all the Masses next weekend, then with a special talk on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm. Our annual 40 Hours’ Devotions will also be underway next weekend from Sunday night to Tuesday night, so it will be a time of real prayer and growth. Please note that we have changed the Masses to 6:30pm on Monday and Tuesday evenings in order to schedule both 40 Hours’ Masses and Father’s Mission Talks. Please mark your calendars, sign up in the church vestibule for a time of prayer in the Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and don’t miss these talks.

The topic this year will be forgiveness. I was told about Fr. Dennis by a music director friend of mine in Connecticut last year. She said that he came and preached all the weekend Masses and the word slowly got out. On Monday night, there were about 200 people, on Tuesday their church was full. On Wednesday they had to put up video screens in the hall for the crowds (their church is relatively small). He is a very dynamic and genuine, challenging speaker and brings a great opportunity for our growth and reflection in making this Lent a season of real conversion and prayer. I encourage you to take advantage of this great opportunity.

Thanks for your great initial response to our parish’s responsibility for the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. After Commitment Weekend last weekend, our unofficial totals are right at 70% of our goal for this year, a great start. Please be sure to take your part and give your contribution. Envelopes are available in the church for you to use if you have maybe misplaced the one mailed to you.

Every diocese in the country has an annual appeal of some sort in order to accomplish the works of the diocese – diocesan ministries, the formation of priests, services to the community and everyday realities of payroll and utilities for many offices. We can’t be a branch without a vine! Please be generous.

I was in the front office the other day and overheard a conversation at the window which has me thinking. Someone was requesting a Mass intention for a particular date. As you may have guessed, the date requested was no longer available, in fact, it had been requested by someone already.

We are now filling Mass intentions for October and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Intentions Book for calendar year 2014 will be full by Easter. As you know, we only have about 1,000 announced Mass intentions available each year, since one Mass each Sunday must be for the parish. Canon Law allows for only one announced intention with a stipend (suggested $10) at each Mass (a law written in answer to abuses long ago), and in the parish we have limited the number of Masses you can request each month in order to give more people an opportunity to request a Mass intention.

Since we don’t open the book for 2015 until November, what do we do in the meantime? The person who came to the window was told about the possibility of unannounced intentions, but wasn’t interested, which indicated to me a lack of understanding of what this means. You see, every time a priest celebrates a Mass, one particular intention may be used and it provides him personally with a stipend. Each time one of us concelebrates (more than one priest at a Mass), or celebrates a Mass away from the parish for whatever reason (our parish pilgrimage, for example, or when we are away) we use all the unannounced intentions which have been requested. For a while now, we have had none of these. Consider it, if you will; there is no limit to the number of unannounced Masses you may request. And if we can’t get to them all, we send them to priests in parishes or missions who don’t have enough.

God bless you.