Bulletin Article: March 8

Catechism No. 2042, "You shall confess your sins at least once a year.” When is the last time that you have participated in the sacrament of the Father’s mercy?

With that I invite you to our parish penance service for Lent which will be Tuesday, March 10, at 7pm. We are scheduled to have nine priests present to assist with hearing confessions. I hope that we will give them a lot of business. We also have confessions Wednesday at 6pm, Saturday at 9am, and Sunday at 1:30pm until start of 2pm Mass.

One reason that people don’t make a confession is because they don’t remember how to. If this applies to you just come and I promise that the priest will walk you through making a good confession. Even if you don’t know the Act of Contrition our confessionals have the prayer posted for your use.

In Christ,

Fr. Dustin Collins

2nd Sunday of Lent Homily

Today our Gospel directs our attention towards the Transfiguration of the Lord. I believe that it is important that we put this passage into its proper context for what we are celebrating today is not the Feast of the Transfiguration (that is August 6th), but the 2nd Sunday of Lent.

We know the Lenten season to be one of penance. For that reason our liturgical color is violet for it is a reminder of our need to undergo penance. Our Blessed Lord took with Him Peter, James, and John to this mountain where He was transfigured in their sight. This is important for very soon they would undergo the events of the Lord’s Passion. Here their faith would come to be tested and they would be tempted to flee.

The Transfiguration serves as a reminder of the Christian virtue of hope. The Transfiguration points us towards hope because it serves as a foreshadowing and reminder of the Resurrection. During this Lenten season it is for the celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection that we now prepare. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Christ’s Transfiguration aims at strengthening the apostles’ faith in anticipation of his Passion: the ascent onto the high mountain prepares for the ascent to Calvary. Christ, Head of the Church, manifests what his Body contains and radiates in the sacraments: the hope of glory.”

In our world we need this same reminder of hope especially when we are attempting to stay close to the Lord. It would be a grave mistake for us to rebuke the cross in our life. Instead we must come to embrace it. It would also be a grave mistake for us to allow the weight of the cross to smash us because hope always remains in the eventual Resurrection of the Lord. Each and every one of us will continue to be called to embrace the cross, but through its loving embrace we will grow in our love and service to the Lord.

If we are convinced of these coming realities and desire to prepare the way for them it is a necessity that we participate in the Sacrament of Confession. How sad is the soul that wants nothing to do with this sacrament for they reject our Lord’s desire to bestow His merciful love upon us? Confession is not something to fear for it cleanses our soul and bestows grace upon the receiver. If we desire to more clearly see our Lord and rejoice with Him we would frequent this sacrament of His love.

When is the last time that you have received this Sacrament? If your answer is pushing a year I encourage you to rush back. If your answer is beyond a year please return without delay. There are seven sacraments which have been given to us by Christ and who are we to say that we are not in need of this gift? This Tuesday we will have a total of nine priests who will be at our parish to hear confession starting at 7pm. If you don’t remember how to make a confession or are worried about not knowing the prayers just return to confession and the priest will be more than happy to walk you through the process.

Very soon we will undergo the events of our Lord’s Passion and we will come to rejoice at the Good News of our Lord’s Resurrection. May we prepare for these days which lay ahead in order that we may more greatly come to behold the splendor that is revealed unto us through the event of the Transfiguration.

St. Mary Men Evening of Recollection Sermon VII: Virtue

We are now in the season of Lent. With that we use this time of penance to orient our path towards the Kingdom of Heaven. This pursuit does not require anything that is too difficult for us to achieve, but rather a pursuit of holiness in our everyday life. This is something which is doable, but do we want it to be so? If we are to be holy in our everyday life then we in return must come to practice virtue.

As a reminder the seven virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. These seven virtues counteract the seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. In the seven months which lay ahead it is my hope to delve further into each of these seven virtues. 

From Saint Paul’s 1st Epistle to the Corinthians: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receive the the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that strove that for the mastery refrained himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.”

This passage puts the importance of virtue into context. We are called to run the race of faith and if we are to do so we must come to appreciate the virtues and apply them to our daily life. We must start somewhere and from there we must persevere in there practice instead of so easily losing hope, giving up, and returning to our old way of life. In the words of Saint Josemaria Escriva: “Strengthen your faith; fill yourself with hope; and make constant acts of Love, even though you can feel them only on your lips.”

This is the starting point that we must obtain. From this point we should move forth each day and in the words of Saint Josemaria Escriva:  “Be firm. Be virile. Be a man. And then... be a saint.” Sanctity cannot be achieved in a day, rather it is something that we must work at. Sadly, there are many who do not see this need and who have not felt this call be made manifest in their life. Hopefully each of us will allow ourself to be a conduit for God’s grace. If we are to do this we must find ways to practice virtue in order to push vice out of our life.

From Saint Josemaria Escriva we are told: “With your life of piety you will learn how to practice the virtues proper to your condition as son of God, as a Christian. And together with those virtues you will acquire a whole range of spiritual values which seem small but are reall very great. They are like shining precious stones, and we must gather them along the way and then take them up to the foot of God’s Throne in service of our fellow men: simplicity, cheerfulness, loyalty, peace, small denunciations, services which pass unnoticed, the faithful fulfillment of duty, kindness.”

With this I hope that this Lenten season will be most fruitful for each of you. There is a need for us to be men of virtue. Let us use this season to grow in this task through those important practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Bulletin Article: March 1

Lent is now upon us. With that I continue to invite you to participate in our various Friday activities of Mass at 5:30pm, Knights of Columbus fish fry, and Stations of the Cross at 7pm.

For the men of our parish I invite you to our Men’s Evening of Recollection on Tuesday, March 3, at 6:45pm. This time includes time for prayer before Blessed Sacrament, confession, and fraternity. The men’s Welcome group is also currently looking for men to attend their annual retreat which will be March 28-29. I encourage your participation if you have yet to make this retreat.

Finally, during this Lenten season I invite you to a few parish goals: (1) Take an hour in our parish Blessed Sacrament chapel (very soon I hope that we will be able to fill 24 hours a day again), (2) spend time in the gathering area following Mass to get to know parishioners of our parish who you may not currently know, and (3) pray a rosary each day for the good of our parish community.

In Christ,

Fr. Dustin Collins

1st Sunday of Lent Homily

Today we celebrate this first Sunday in the Lenten season. In Latin this is known to us as the first Sunday of Quadragesima. Quadragesima in English translates to “forty days” as a reminder that in this season we stand forty days away from our celebration of Easter.

The number forty becomes an important number throughout Sacred Scripture. Thus to name a few of these occasions: it rained for a period of forty days and nights leading to the Great Flood, Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea and into the desert where they wondered about lost for a period of forty years, and as was heard in our Gospel Christ went into the desert to pray and fast for a period of forty days and nights.

It is the purpose of the Lenten season to prepare us for our encounter with the Risen Lord at Easter. It is also the purpose of this season to prepare us for renewal in the fact that we were baptized in the waters of baptism. It is through sin that we stain our baptismal garment that was given to us on this most important of days.

This number comes to represent the journey that we make in this life towards the life which is to come. Through the Red Sea the Israelites passed as we pass through the waters of baptism. From here they wondered about lost as we wonder about this life. They then complained against God as we often complain against God and return to the slavery of sin. Nevertheless, God heard their plea and poured out bread from Heaven upon them as we are fed by the Most Holy Eucharist. Despite the many twists and turns of life they were oriented towards the Promised Land as we are oriented towards the Kingdom of Heaven. May we not turn back to our old ways of life, but instead be nourished by the sacraments and remain on this life giving path.

If we are to remain upon this path we must remain on guard “against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” Therefore we must remember that the devil is real. The greatest lie that the devil can make us believe is that he does not exist and sadly there are many who have bought into this lie; including those who attend Mass week in and week out. In our Gospel the devil attempted to temp our Blessed Lord, but his lies had no power over Him. We must stay on guard against him at all times.

For this reason the season of Lent is so important for us. The season of Lent is an avenue which directs our sight towards God by orienting it towards what is actually important in this life. Jesus goes into the desert and shows us the need to pray and fast. Through these practices we come to rebuke “the wickedness and snares of the devil” which attempt to overcome us and cause us to retreat to the life that we had known before baptism, a life of sin and death.

May Lent be fruitful for year of us that we may come to glorify God through everything that we encounter on this earth instead of twisting it to the point that it no-longer meets its God given purpose. The devil cannot create, but only twist that which was created and ordered to be good through his lies. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we will rebuke him and turn towards the Lord our God.