Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Fifth Sunday of Lent! For those of you who adopted ambitious goals for Lent, you’re almost there – next Sunday kicks off Holy Week! Keep it up! If you’re not satisfied with your prayer, fasting and almsgiving this Lent, you have two weeks left to improve. Make the best of it!
Weather permitting, I encourage you to start Palm Sunday Mass with me in the patio adjacent to the church. We’ll post a sign at the front door to remind you. Holy Week is the only week of the year during which the parish uses the patio twice, for the blessing of palms on
Palm Sunday and the Easter fire on Holy Saturday night.
Speaking of the patio, we’re planning a spring refresh, a vast improvement of the flower beds. In December, we replaced the concrete furniture with more comfortable and more attractive outdoor furniture. I also hear the empty statue pedestals calling out to me for purpose. If you’d like to place a favorite saint in the patio, please see me. The patio does not get much use year-round so I don’t want to throw good money at bad, but I think a few thousand dollars will go a long way to making this space more useful for parish programming and for all of our parishioners. In good weather, you’re welcome to read a book here or enjoy lunch. The patio is ADA-accessible from the small Hopkins Avenue lot.
What’s most important during Lent is confession before Easter. We’ll host the “Haddons” regional penance service on Wednesday of Holy Week, March 27 at 7 PM. Priests from St. Rose of Lima, Haddon Heights, and St. Joseph the Worker, Haddon Township, will participate.
To prepare yourself, visit the US Bishops website, usccb.org, and click on Prayer and Worship —> Sacraments —> Penance for a couple of examinations of conscience. They help us to reflect comprehensively on our sinful behavior so we can make a “good confession” and arrive on Easter Sunday with hearts wholly dedicated to the Lord.
If that service and the usual Saturday 4:15 PM time don’t work for you, feel free to visit the parish website and use the link on the Clergy page to make an appointment with me.