March 29th, 2026 – Palm Sunday
“God made humans because he loves stories.”
(Elie Wiesel, The Gates of the Forest)
Dear Friends,
As we enter the time of the “greatest story ever told,” (a good Holy Week movie made in 1965!), we are invited to bring our stories to the story of Jesus: our joys, our sorrows, our complexities, our simple days. We bring it all to the Cross and are called to realize that Christ is always part of the story, bringing transformation, new life, new hope.
Make this week holy! Turn off the phone, linger over coffee and dinner, take a long walk, “waste” time doing nothing with the people you love! Go to all the Holy Week Services! Be a little more generous to the poor! (Their stories are our stories, as we are all poor in some way.)
The next chapter of your life’s story is opening – let your faith in Jesus hold it all together in love and hope. His story is our story. The best is yet to come!
Let us begin!
Fr. Tim
March 22nd, 2026 – Fifth Sunday of Lent
As we enter the final weeks of Lent, the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus invites us to reflect on the deeper movements of our spiritual lives. Many of us can look back and recognize that life has not unfolded exactly as we once imagined. And yet beneath those changes remains a more important question: Who is God calling us to become?
Often, the path toward becoming that person requires letting go—of fears, habits, attachments, and even the quiet sense of shame that can hold us back. These moments of letting go can feel like a kind of death. We grieve what we leave behind and fear what lies ahead. But the Gospel reminds us that God is always at work, bringing new life out of what seems lost.
The story of Lazarus is not only about what happened long ago; it reveals something about each of us. Christ stands before the “tombs” in our own lives—the places where fear, resentment, or past wounds keep us from living fully—and calls us by name: “Come out.”
Pope Francis reflects on this beautifully: “Let us think: what part of the heart can be corrupted because of my
attachment to sin… and to remove the stone, to take away the stone of shame… and allow the Lord to say to us: ‘Come out!’”
This is the invitation of Lent. Christ does not call us to remain where we are, but to step into the new life he offers. As we prepare for Holy Week, may we have the courage to hear his voice and to trust that God can bring life even out of the places that feel most like death.
In the Divine Savior,
Fr. Silas, SDS
March 15th, 2026 – Fourth Sunday of Lent
Dear parishioners,
A simple message: listen to the prayers the priest says during these final Masses of Lent. I will share with you a prayer that I love in particular, the Preface of the Fifth Week of Lent. During the Fifth Week, after the Prayer over the Offerings and before the Holy, Holy, Holy, this Preface goes as follows:
“For through the saving passion of your Son, the whole world has received a heart to confess the infinite power of your majesty, since by the wondrous power of the Cross your judgment on the world is now revealed and the authority of Christ crucified.”
As we pray in these final weeks of Lent, ask the Lord for the gift of a new heart. The new heart sees the power of God revealed on the Cross, as God chooses to share our weakness and to love us even unto death. The new heart receives the Lord’s judgment, showing our idols and excessive attachments in their true light. And the new heart accepts the authority of Christ crucified – that only God’s love can truly define us, not our mistakes or failings or self-doubt.
John Paul II said: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.” This Lent, as you look to the Son of God there for you on the cross, may you receive a heart that truly believes this!
Blessings to you,
Fr. Edward
March 8th, 2026 -Third Sunday of Lent
Dear Sisters & Brothers,
On the first Sunday of Lent, all who are preparing for Baptism this Easter were presented to Archbishop Grob. At that celebration, they were told that they would no longer be called Catechumens but would now be known as the Elect, meaning chosen. On this Third Sunday of Lent, the Elect begin a series of three rites known as the Scrutinies. Though they are meant for the OCIA Elect, the Scrutinies can help all Catholics seeking to live a life of continuous conversion.
The purpose of the Scrutinies is “to reveal what is weak, sick, and sinful in the hearts of the Elect, so that it can be healed; and what is honorable, strong, and holy, so that it can be strengthened.” (Ritual Text for Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, paragraph #141) The Scrutinies are celebrated in the light of the three gospel texts chosen for the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. These passages from the Gospel of John are meant to give the Elect a deeper understanding of Christ the Redeemer, who is living water (the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman), light (the Gospel of the Man Born Blind), resurrection, and life (the Gospel of the Raising of Lazarus).
For those of us who are already baptized, the Gospel readings listed above offer us an opportunity to examine our own lives and uncover what is sinful and weak that needs to be forgiven and healed, as well as what is good and honorable that needs to be strengthened. Please spend some time with these Gospel passages in your personal prayer over the next three weeks. I also ask you to remember our Elect and our Candidates for Full Communion with the Catholic Church in your prayers during the remaining weeks of Lent. I hope you will join us for the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening, when our Elect and Candidates will celebrate the Easter Sacraments.
With my love,
Fr. Brian
March 1st, 2026 -Second Sunday of Lent
“Ring the bells that still can ring/
Forget your perfect offering/
There is a crack, a crack in everything/
That’s how the light gets in.”
~Leonard Cohen, Anthem
Dear Friends,
In the gospel of this second Sunday of Lent, we hear about the Transfiguration in which Jesus appears in magnificent light conversing with Moses and Elijah. It was so great an experience that our good friend Peter wants to build tents to capture it. I know I would want to do that as well. It must have been so beautiful, a sign of the continuing presence and power of God in the world he created.
But Scripture scholars reflect that it occurs to prepare the disciples for the agony of the Crucifixion. You cannot have the “glory” of the Transfiguration without the “gory” of the Cross, no joy without sorrow, no healing without pain, no victory without struggle, no life without death!
Life is always a little cracked, and sometimes we experience really big cracks, those experiences which break our hearts and fill us with pain, loneliness and anxiety. Thank God for his Son Jesus, who in his journey reminds us that the darkness will never ultimately win, that the passing darkness will always lead and help us to the light, that even in our struggles, light can break forth even when things seem most dark. When we walk close to Jesus, and like Moses, Elijah and Peter have a good conversation with him, he will remind us he is with us always, even to the end of the world.
Have a blessed Lenten week, looking for light, being the light, enduring the dark, and being close to Jesus as he moves from Agony to Ascension!
