March 19, 2023 4th Sunday of Lent To My Spiritual Family of Holy Redeemer and St. Anthony, God is so good: What a powerful and grace-filled Lenten Mission we experienced this week! Fr. Ben did a marvelous job in leading us. The music was beautiful. Your presence was uplifting. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was alive and working in our midst! My personal gratitude goes out to all who were involved in any way, including the parish staff and the volunteers who put so much time and love into preparing for the Mission. Now, it’s up to us, right? Will the inspirations that we gleaned from the Mission nights lead us to a place of deeper discipleship? Are we ready to allow the Eucharist to truly transform our hearts and minds? I hope that we are. Mission in Meadville: This week, I will be preaching the Lenten Mission for Epiphany Parish in Meadville. Please remember this Mission (and me) in your prayers! Their Mission runs each evening from March 19-21. Because I will be in Meadville on Monday evening (March 20), there will not be confessions or Mass at Holy Redeemer. There will be Stations of the Cross at 6:15 pm. We thank Deacon Ray for so faithfully leading this devotion throughout Lent. The Church Universal is also celebrating the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 20. We wish a blessed and joyful patronal feast day to our parish neighbors to the west – the good people of St. Joseph Church! If you can join them for Mass on their feast day, I encourage you to do so. Go and Announce the Gospel: We are a people obliged – and privileged – to tell others the good news of Christ. Are we doing so? Are we praying for those opportunities to speak the name of Jesus to the people we encounter? As Christians, we have a story to tell that is greater than any other. We are loved! We are forgiven! We are redeemed! We are blessed! If you struggle with the courage or the words to evangelize, ask the Holy Spirit to assist you. The Spirit will enflame you. Remember the exhortation given by our Savior: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden (Mt 5:14).” Go and announce the gospel of the Lord! Ecumenical Lenten Service: We will be hosting faith communities from Sheffield for a Lenten prayer service on Wednesday, March 22, 7:00 pm at St. Anthony. I will be offering the message and Georgi Rice will be providing music. Please join us for this moment of Lenten prayer and fellowship. Sacraments, Prayers, and Joy: Dorothy from Kansas had to deal with lions and tigers and bears. Oh my! We are blessed to be anticipating baptisms and confirmations and First Communions. Oh my . . . indeed! Please continue to soak our OCIA catechumens and candidates in prayer! I ask you to lift up in your prayer our First Reconciliation student who will be receiving the sacrament on the Solemnity of the Annunciation. Pray as well for our teenaged confirmation candidates (the bishop will be here at Holy Redeemer to administer the sacrament on April 19). And lest we leave them without the benefit of prayer, remember as well, our young First Communion candidates. This season of Lent, leading soon into the feast days of Easter, is a time of great joy! Palm Sunday is rapidly approaching. Holy Week, the Chrism Mass, and the Triduum follow. So much sacramental grace is to be poured out and received. Thank you, God! We praise you and we love you! Mary, Mother of the Holy Redeemer – Pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe – Pray for us! St. Anthony – Pray for us! St. Joseph – Pray for us! Fr. Steve