News - March 2021 RSS Feed

This month marks one year since our last real choir rehearsal at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Those are words I never thought I would say when taking on the mantle of parish music director over two decades ago. Even more unthinkable is what I’ve had to say several times to our assemblies gathered for Mass: “Please do not sing.” What?! Those of us who work in liturgical music dedicate our life’s work to leading God’s people in song together, raising to God the voices that He gave us, powered by the very breath through which God gives us life. Yet for this past year, that same breath has become a potential means of spreading COVID. The deep, profound breaths that are the stock and trade of quality singing have seemingly become slings and arrows of peril.

The season of Lent is always hit or miss for me. I typically jump in wholeheartedly with really good intentions, and then somewhere in the journey my zeal dwindles and I finish not as dedicated as when I began. During the Holy Triduum, I find myself begging for God’s mercy to make up for my lack of faithfulness and praying for the joy of Easter to fill me. I know that the Lord is always faithful to make up for where we are lacking, but I long for this Lent to be different—I long to be faithful to the Lord, remaining with Him in the desert and not abandoning Him for temporary pleasures.

On the first Sunday of Lent, we heard that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. This happened immediately following the Lord’s baptism. To understand the significance of the desert temptations, we need to first remember Jesus’ baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him as God the Father pronounced, “You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). (continue reading by clicking on post title)

Comforting the Afflicted, sometimes called Comforting the Sorrowful, is a spiritual work of mercy because it refers to our need to support each other emotionally and spiritually. God’s mercy towards us is not merely given for our own comfort in affliction, but so that we might also display His mercy as we comfort others.