3/26/2023

The Communal Penance Service is from 5:30 – 7 PM this MONDAY evening. We will have soup and chili as usual for penitents and confessors alike to consume as soon as you are done with confession. Somehow it is consoling to admit our sinfulness and to be absolved along with others, as it is to celebrate being absolved with others as well. We are all sinners, and one of the things that Jesus does is allow us to admit our sins with the confidence that He can not only forgive us but integrate our sins into our lives as we go forward. We don’t have to deny anything; we don’t have to justify ourselves; we don’t have to completely undo the damage we have done (this is rarely possible). Christ allows us to repent and move forward in faith. Repentance provides an occasion to experience, then understand more deeply the God’s Merciful Love. There is joy in knowing that we are forgiven. C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

It may be that salvation consists not in the cancelling of these eternal moments [of sin] but in the perfected humility that bears the shame forever, rejoicing in the occasion which it furnished to God's compassion and glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe. Perhaps in that eternal moment St. Peter--he will forgive me if I am wrong--forever denies his master. If so, it would indeed be true that the joys of heaven are for the most of us, in our present condition, an acquired taste"--and certain ways of life may render the taste impossible of acquisition.

Perhaps the lost are those who dare not go to such a public place. (The Problem of Pain, pp 49-50) So come and experience the Redemptive, Merciful Love of our Lord Monday evening!
I had hoped to distribute Communion under the species of both bread AND wine. But as I think about it, we will have extra people here whom we cannot catechize regarding receiving from the cup; there are sicknesses still going around; and we have to have the Extraordinary Ministers to do this correctly, since the number will double for each Mass. So it seems prudent to wait until a little later. I am interested in how you feel about this issue. Please let us know via Flocknote (answer the survey) or tell us personally or call the office.
When we do begin again to distribute the Precious Blood, we expect people to take a small sip, not much more than wetting their lips. The Lord is present totally in one drop, as He is in one small particle, of communion, and that is the point of receiving the Lord.
Let us continue to prepare for Easter and the Resurrection!

Father Albert, O.S.B.