IF...

The title of this article, "If," is so short that it's easy to overlook—yet few words carry so much weight in the Catholic imagination. These two simple letters hold the potential to launch beautiful dreams or plant seeds of destructive doubt.

On the positive side, the word "if" opens possibilities, like saying, "If I work hard, I can succeed." It encourages hope and stimulates creativity, like wondering, "What if we did it this way?" It motivates action by highlighting the rewards, like a teacher saying to their student, "If you study, you'll pass the exam." And it suggests a promising outcome, like me predicting: "If you are reading this article, you are probably a disciple of Jesus."

Dear Parishioners,

“Lent,” the word used to name the current liturgical season in which we are immersed, was most likely derived from an old Germanic word that meant “to lengthen.” It is a fitting word for this time of year as we watch daylight lengthen and nighttime shorten. The word, therefore, came to be synonymous with spring. Once Easter became an annual celebration for Christians, as well as, the major occasion when the church initiated its new members into the Christian community, the weeks of spring preceding Easter, became known as Lent. These Lenten weeks, which gradually turned into months and sometimes years, marked the period of preparation for the candidates of initiation who were called “Catechumens.” They were also called “the Elect,” because they had been elected by the bishop as those who would receive the Sacraments of Initiation that included: Baptism with water in the name of the Trinity, anointing with oil that, will eventually be called “Confirmation” or “Chrismation” (after the word “chrism” – which was the oil used for this ritual anointing), and reception of the Eucharist.

Dear Parishioners,

Nearly two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday, when we began this season of Lent, we participated in a ritual that, despite its antiquity and archaic quality, has retained enormous appeal throughout the centuries of Christendom. Our foreheads were marked with ash, the remnants of last year’s branches from Palm Sunday. These symbols, which were once expressions of exaltation and triumph, were now expressions of human mortality as we were told, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." And so, we entered a sober forty-day period of self-examination and renunciation intended to foster conversion—a change in the way we view the world and a change in the way we live within it.

Dear Parishioners,

Having entered the liturgical season of Lent, which began this past Wednesday, we hear recurring references to the three time-honored disciplines that are associated with this time of penance: Prayer, Almsgiving, and Fasting. Over the centuries, the church has found that these three practices help to maintain a stable Christian life. No one would disagree that prayer is always necessary for deepening one’s friendship with God; and almsgiving is a practical (as well as spiritual) undertaking that supports our programs, projects, and physical temporalities that are essential for making the church visible to the world. But fasting can be somewhat controversial.

Dear Parishioners,

In last week’s bulletin article, I offered a very abridged history of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In that brief sketch, I failed to include a fascinating feature from the early seventeenth century which impacted this devotion. Around this time the first modern atlas of human anatomy got published. Soon afterward, William Harvey published his treatise on the movement of the heart and the circulation of the blood. This scientific description of the body’s blood pumping muscle fueled the religious imaginations of people, particularly artists. They, in turn, reflected this anatomical understanding in their iconography. All of this demonstrates that religion and religious practices are typically not created in vacuums.