Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 30 March 2025

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This past week we celebrated the Solem-nity of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It always surprises me because every year it is deep in the season of Lent and we are focusing on being reconciled to God preparing for the upcoming passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Doing the math, of course, Jesus is con-ceived by the Holy Spirit nine months before his birth — March 25. We just aren’t thinking about Christmas right now.

It occurs to me that the day deserves more significance than it receives, and could even qualify as a holy day. Culturally, we are conditioned to think of Christmas and Easter as the high feastdays the Church gathers around with special solemnity. Think of it: although Jesus’ birth and resurrection are central to faith, would not the incarnation, God entering into our humanity in Christ be as important, if not more, than his birth? By the time he is born, Jesus has already been living our humanity for nine months.

The feastday is titled the Annunciation because it makes very clear that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit and this was confirmed by the message of the angel Gabriel, thus strengthening the dogma of the one person/two natures of Jesus. But it is the moment of conception that is the beginning of this new life of incarnation.

I think this would be the perfect oppor-tunity for the Church to use this feastday as a teaching moment. Didactic feastdays (like the Assumption of Mary or Immaculate Conception) are obligatory because they teach Church dogma through the living practice of the Church. One of the concepts one learns in theology is lex orandi, lex credendi, the law of praying is the law of believing.

This is the absolutely perfect feast for the Church to proclaim the sacredness of human life. A pro-life feastday rooted in the story of Jesus himself, no one would deny that the moment of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit was the event of the Incarnation. All life is precious.

This is the Fourth Sunday of Lent, traditionally known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare, means to rejoice. It is proposed to us as a disposition for today, but it may not be your first reaction to Lent. We tend to tone down our celebrations during Lent to reflect a more meditative, even somber, mood. Sorrow for sin, penance, fasting. You may have noticed we haven’t been lighting the stained glass in the sanctuary, a kind of fasting for the eyes, as no recessional hymn is a kind of fasting for the ears.

But in the middle of it all, if you seek it, there still exists the kind of joy that is unshakeable even in adversity. Jesus certainly wasn’t happy on the cross, but there was a joy he sustained because he knew he was accomplishing his Father’s will. The little sacrifices we make (or the large ones, too) can be united to Christ in his self-gift to our loving Father, and we can know his joy and make it ours.

One last thing — someone asked me last weekend what the rocks were doing in front of the altar. I realized we put out the bucket of rocks and never told anyone about it. It is something I started at my last parish and brought it here, so most probably know about this already. I call it “Living Stones” and here is how it works: During the season of Lent, approach someone who has left or been away from the Church and invite them back. After you have personally made this invitation, you then take a stone from the container and place it in front of the altar.

The other thing I never mentioned is that those stones are there as a reminder that we must pray for these people after the invitation has been made. When you are at Mass, pray for the people represented by these stones. It might just be the prayer that will help them to feel welcome again. And tell them they are being remembered! In a certain sense, it will be like they have already been present to us if they decide to give faith another chance.

Like the feast of the Annunciation, in the silence of Lent allow yourself to be surprised by a moment of joy this weekend as with hope we observe the coming feasts.

The Lord be with you.