Fr. Luis Largaespada
As of March 17, 220 families have generously pledged $272,465 to the Archbishop’s Charities and Development drive (ABCD) this year. The campaign is ending and we have not yet met our goal of $338,000 for this year. If you have not yet pledged, please consider pledging $1 a day for a year.
To make your donation, please visit https://give.adomdevelopment.org/abcd,
and make sure to list St. Hugh as your parish.
LENTEN CALENDAR
English Stations of the Cross
Fridays 8:30 a.m.
Bilingual Stations of the Cross – Fridays 6:30 p.m.
March 24: Matrimonios St. Hugh
March 31: St. Hugh School Students
Traditional Latin Mass
Monday, March 20, 7:00 p.m.
Taizé Prayer Service
Friday, March 31
Reconciliation
Saturdays, 4:30 – 5:15 p.m.
Saturday, March 18, 9 a.m. — 12 noon
Sundays, during the morning Masses
PRAYER INTENTION FOR THE WEEK
For those in need of conversion, that the light of Christ may shine on them.
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR MARCH
For victims of abuse
A Sunday Reflection
4th Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)
YOU WERE ONCE IN DARKNESS (EPH 5:8A).
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine not being able to see. Imagine if you can to never have seen at all. That is the plight of the man in today’s Gospel. The disciples ask the Lord Jesus an interesting question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (Jn 9:2). Any such misfortune was considered to be due to someone’s sin at the time, something totally foreign to us and outrageous. Yet, don’t we sometimes do the same when we ask why God “let this or that happen to me”? Actually, we even blame God for our misfortunes!
We should stop and think about Jesus’ answer: “it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (9:3). And so with us. Everything happens for a purpose, for God’s purpose. As St. Paul tells the Romans, “all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Let us trust in His love.
As for us, St. Paul tells us that we were once in darkness (cf Eph 5:8a), but no longer. Christ tells the disciples that “while I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:5). We have been given His light that we may carry it to all we meet. Let us then live “as children of the light” (Eph 5:8b). God bless you.
News
More suggestions on how not to waste Lent
- Look at your life and don’t make any more resolutions. Make two lists, the first one with what you feel is missing from your life, the second with what you have too much of. You will know what to do next.
- Walk with the Word. Look to the Scripture and walk with the Word all day. Open your eyes and ears to the Lord. What does He want to tell you today?
- Take part in worship. On Friday, take a half hour to go to a Way of the Cross service. If you cannot make it to church, meditate on the Passion of Christ at home.
- Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This short prayer can work wonders. It takes away anxiety and has a calming effect. If you find it difficult to speak to God in your own words, reach for the Rosary. Maybe you could pray for someone you do not like?
- Immerse yourself in music. Music can open our hearts and bring us closer to God. Light a candle. Turn on your favorite quiet melody and talk with Him.
- More suggestions next week!
Around the Parish
THE RITE OF ELECTION OF THOSE WHO WILL BE BAPTIZED AT THE EASTER VIGIL.
(TAKEN FROM THE HOLY FATHER’S CATECHESIS ON DISCERNMENT, AT THE WEDNESDAY GENERAL AUDIENCE, AUGUST, 2022—JANUARY, 2023.)
Good discernment also requires self-knowledge. Knowing oneself. And this is not easy. Indeed, discernment involves our human faculties: memory, intellect, will, affections. Often, we do not know how to discern because we do not know ourselves well enough, and so we do not know what we really want.
Knowing oneself is not difficult, but it is laborious: it entails patient soul-searching. It requires the capacity to stop, to “deactivate the autopilot”, to acquire awareness of our way of acting, of the feelings that dwell within us, of the recurrent thoughts that condition us, and often unconsciously. It also requires that we distinguish between emotions and spiritual faculties. “I feel” is not the same as “I am convinced”; “I feel like” is not the same as “I want”. Thus, we come to recognize that the view we have of ourselves and of reality is at times somewhat distorted. To realize this is a grace!
This is why, dear brothers and sisters, it is important to know ourselves, to know the passwords of our heart, what we are most sensitive to, in order to protect ourselves from those who present themselves with persuasive words to manipulate us, but also to recognize what is truly important for us, distinguishing it from current fads or flashy, superficial slogans.
An aid in this is an examination of conscience,… A general examination of conscience of the day: what happened in my heart during this day? “Lots of things happened…”. Which? Why? What traces did they leave in my heart? Carrying out an examination of conscience, that is, the good habit of calmly rereading what happened during our day, learning to note in our evaluations and choices what we give most importance to, what we are looking for and why, and what we eventually find. Above all, learning to recognize what satisfies my heart.
Some Thoughts on Mary's Immaculate Conception
How wonderful it is that the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary always falls within the start of Advent. [While] we wait with longing for the Word made flesh to come to us as Emmanu-el (God-with-us), we are invited to consider how deeply planned, how “not-random” is his coming, by pondering his Mother Mary.
“Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s son, nothing could be redeemed,” declared St. Anselm in a sermon, also noting that God is “Father” of the created world and Mary the “Mother” of the world recreated in Christ.
From the very beginnings of her existence … the body and soul of Mary were created as the imperatively immaculate vessel required for the containment and growth of the Incarnation of the All Holy. Mary was created with the graces that would render her a fit Ark for the New Covenant.
It makes perfect sense that the God who is all good is also completely pure; therefore, the vessel in which he would reside … need also be pure, or it could never have been able to sustain all of the light, all of the holiness, all of that power extant within the All-in-All.
It’s a lot to take in, and something we rarely consider (even when we say, “To Jesus, through Mary”): that Christ’s Body and his Blood are Mary’s as well—that the foundational materials of our Holy Eucharist come to us through Mary. Especially in this month, let us say each day, with perfect confidence in this “Mother of the world, recreated in Christ”: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Elizabeth Scalia, To Jesus Through Mary? Why Yes, and T’was Ever Thus,
Word on Fire Blog, December 5, 2019
