Living the Liturgical Year

A parishioner asked me last weekend for an explanation of the picture of a human skull on the front cover of our bulletin, and I told her it was to remind us of our mortality. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday when we receive ashes on our foreheads and we are reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. This symbol of the human skull is to call our attention to this very truth - Memento Mori, Remember you must die. We must never let this be lost on us that we are only on earth for a brief moment. No matter how long one lives on earth, one must surely return home. Lent is that season the Church gives us to refocus our attention on the most essential thing, which is our relationship with the Lord. [Click to read more]

Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy (Leviticus 19:2). This is an imperative, not a suggestion. God does not play games. He spells out what he demands from the people of Israel of old, and from us, the new Israel. Holiness is that quality that makes us like unto God. God is holy because he is utterly Other, and removed from everything else. He is the One God, not one among many. And God’s holiness speaks of his transcendence. To be holy is to be ‘set apart.’ We are called to be holy and be separated as well. But from what must we be separated? The separateness that scripture calls for is that we be set apart for the Lord. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that man is the only creature willed by God for its own sakes (CCC. 356)...

The season of Lent is quickly approaching. As with everything in life, proper planning is essential for success. The spiritual life is no exception. We have been praying and reflecting on how to make this year's Lent more prayerful and fruitful. We are introducing the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours fifteen minutes before our weekday Masses on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday beginning on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday. [Click to read more]

The way Catholics ought to live should be informed by the liturgy and the creed that are developed and expressed in the liturgy. So, what we believe and act upon in the world ought to flow from the liturgy and should lead us back to the liturgy. This connects Lex vivendi with the other two - lex orandi and lex credendi. In the liturgy the church enacts her faith through ritual actions, prayers and proclamations. But the liturgy is not an end in itself, such that we do the liturgy and go home and do no more. The church has the mandate to sanctify the earth. This is why worship must lead to mission and back... [Click to read more]