Third Sunday of Lent
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
Third Sunday of Lent. As Lent continues please make sure you’re taking full advantage of this holy season. Some of you may not have really turned your full attention to the penitence of the season yet, and some of you may be starting to wane in your sincere efforts. All that is understandable, but we must not let this terrific opportunity to draw closer to Christ slip away.
In this regard I urge you to pause every night before you go to bed and briefly examine your consciences, thinking both of your sins and of God’s blessings of the day. Also take a moment to consider how you well you “kept Lent” that day.
I also encourage you to carefully review the Lenten Schedule we distributed two weeks ago (go to straymonds.org and click “LENTEN AND EASTER SCHEDULE” on the pop-up) and think about which of the various Lenten liturgies and activities you should take part in—and resolve to make it happen.
The schedule shows daily confession opportunities—have you been yet? And the Friday Stations of the Cross—such a simple but profound devotion. Or maybe you can come to Exposition and Adoration on Wednesday or Friday, or during the early hours of Saturday—that would be a powerful penance. Or how about waking up early once a week to come to morning Mass before work or school, or come to evening Mass, maybe on Wednesday and hear my homily series on “The Wounds of Jesus’ Passion.”
Don’t let this opportunity to grow in holiness, pass you by. Keep the love of Christ Crucified before your eyes at all times, so that your hearts maybe transformed every day in Lent.
RCIA and RCIC. Please keep in prayer those adults and children who are preparing to enter the Catholic Church and/or be baptized, confirmed and receive First Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil. Let us pray that they persevere in faith, and be open to all the graces God has in store for them. And may they be an example to the rest of us, reminding each of us of our own continuing need for personal conversion in the love of Christ.
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Next Tuesday, March 25, is the feast of the Annunciation, remembering the Archangel Gabriel apparition to the Virgin Mary to announce, and receive her consent to, the miraculous conception of Jesus. Thus, it is traditionally understood to be a memorial of the event of Conception of Jesus. A great day to go to Mass to honor Our Blessed Mother.
Virginia State March for Life. Just a note to remind you to sign up for the Parish Bus to the Virginia State March for Life coming up on Wednesday April 2 in Richmond. The sign-up sheets are in the narthex.
Receiving Communion. A while back retired Cardinal Robert Sarah, formerly the Vatican’s Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, wrote a book in which he discussed receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. What follows is an extract from that book that I ask you to read prayerfully. I do not seek to impose, just propose.
“The liturgy is made up of many small rituals and gestures — each of them is capable of expressing…attitudes filled with love, filial respect and adoration toward God. That is precisely why it is appropriate to promote the beauty, fittingness and pastoral value of a practice which developed during the long life and tradition of the Church, that is, the act of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. The greatness and nobility of man, as well as the highest expression of his love for his Creator, consists in kneeling before God. Jesus himself prayed on his knees in the presence of the Father….
“In this regard I would like to propose the example of two great saints of our time… St. John Paul II[‘s] …entire life was marked by a profound respect for the Holy Eucharist…. Despite being exhausted and without strength… he always knelt before the Blessed Sacrament. He was unable to kneel and stand up alone. …Until his last days, he wanted to offer us a great witness of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Why are we so proud and insensitive to the signs that God himself offers us for our spiritual growth and our intimate relationship with Him? Why do not we kneel down to receive Holy Communion after the example of the saints? Is it really so humiliating to bow down and remain kneeling before the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet, “He, though being in the form of God,… humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2: 6-8).
“St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta… had a respect and absolute worship of the divine Body of Jesus Christ…[F]illed with wonder and respectful veneration, Mother Teresa refrained from touching the transubstantiated Body of Christ. Instead, she adored him and contemplated him silently, she remained at length on her knees and prostrated herself before Jesus in the Eucharist. Moreover, she received Holy Communion in her mouth, like a little child who has humbly allowed herself to be fed by her God… The saint was saddened and pained when she saw Christians receiving Holy Communion in their hands…
“…Let us come as children and humbly receive the Body of Christ on our knees and on our tongue. The saints give us the example….!
Public School News. Did you see that Fairfax County School Board has dissolved the Sex Ed drafting committee (Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee or FLECAC) and the Superintendent Michelle Reid has said there will be no action on curriculum for the rest of the school year. This is good news, so we take the win.
And did you see that the administration at West Springfield High School celebrated Women’s History Month by hanging posters in the hallways illustrating the “ABCs” of women’s interests, including the following:
“A Is for Abortion” (with a picture of a coat hanger); “H Is for Hope” (photo of Kamala Harris); “J Is for Justice” (Statue of Liberty with raised fist, Palestinian flag); “M is for Mansplain” (image of overbearing man with woman); “N is for NOW: the National Organization for Women“; “P is for Patriarchy“; “Q Is for Queer“; “T Is for Transgender Women”; “Y is for Your Body: My Body, My Choice”
You paid for these posters with your tax dollars. Did you mean to do that? The principal is Betsy Fawcett (EWFawsett@fcps.edu), and the FCPS Superintendent is Dr. Michelle Reid (superintendent@fcps.edu). Thanks to Catholic Engaged for their heads up.
St. Patrick’s Dinner. It was good to see so many of you at last Saturday’s St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph Day Dinner enjoying good food, music, and fellowship. These kinds of social events are so important to the life of a vibrant Catholic parish, as opportunities to share the love and joy of Christ together, and to get to know each other better so as to live and work together as the Body of Christ in Springfield. Thanks for all who worked so hard to make the evening a success, especially the Knights of Columbus.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles