As Lent seems to seep past its normal boundaries and the whole world waits for new life, still we know that Jesus Christ is risen! We may celebrate differently this year, but still we celebrate. We learn in a deeper way that faith, hope, and love are not mere emotions, but virtues which require hard work and supernatural grace. And so we wait for the days when we can be together again, share the Eucharist again, sing harmonies again.
As we anticipate that unique resurrection, please let’s pray for those who are still waiting to receive their sacraments of initiation. As I said to them earlier this week, I know it’s hard, but I don’t know HOW it’s hard. I was baptized before my due date. I made my first Communion in a homemade lace dress SO TINY I can’t believe I ever fit into it. I was confirmed at an age when I was thinking maybe I’d like to grow up to be a Spanish translator. I got married 8 months after getting engaged, 5 months after graduating from college. I do NOT know what it’s like to have to wait for sacraments, and maybe you don’t either. But they do. They have been called into a unique wilderness of waiting.
While it is a truth of every spiritual journey that there comes a time when the newly initiated need to turn away from being spoon-fed and hand-held so as to eat and toddle on their own, I am sorry that it seems like they have had to go from the crib to a triathalon so quickly – without the benefit of the sacraments.
But after all, the Lord our God never stops holding our hands – or our hearts – and feeding us with His own self. We shouldn’t lose hope at the lack of sacraments, but look for all the ways He provides in their temporary absence. Let’s look for Him in His Word, in the love of others poured out for us, in the profound depths of all He has done and continues to do in our lives – most especially in the events we have commemorated / repopulated this week.
Please say an extra prayer for our elect and candidates all over the world, and especially our own: Ashley Adams, Scott Chue, Jerome Golson, James Jones, Al Powell, Damaris Romero, David Salamas, Frances Sims, Laurence Sims, Larry Walthall, and Lisa Williams.
May the God who gave Himself up for you and me — the God who ROSE FROM THE DEAD for you and me — continue to fill us with His grace and peace.
Marian Bart
Evangelization Coordinator