This Lent, Make the Eucharist a Center of Your Spiritual Life
My Dear Parishioners,
It gives me great joy to be able to welcome you during the beginning of this holy season of Lent, which we celebrate year after year in the Universal Church. In addition to being a season in which we grow closer to the Lord through prayer and almsgiving and fasting, it’s also a season in which we pray for those who will receive the fullness of the sacraments at the fount of baptism and receive their confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. We pray for our catechumens and our candidates in a special way during this season.
This Lent of 2023 is made special for other reasons, too. The diocese will sponsor a Lenten pilgrimage, inviting people to go from church to church to pray during a year of Eucharistic revival. Our church will be open to receive those pilgrims on Tuesday, March 21st, beginning with the opportunity to go to confession in the morning at 11:30AM, to celebrate the Eucharist with us at noon, and then to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for the rest of the day until 7:30 in the evening. The adoration of the Eucharist is—as one Benedictine friar called it—the Mass held in contemplation.
We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity on Tuesday, March 21st, to contemplate the Eucharist, and on the Thursdays of Lent. We offer this opportunity not only during Lent but on Thursdays throughout the year as well, during our weekly Thursday devotions dedicated to the Most Blessed Sacrament. The bishops of our country are inviting us to spend this year in a type of Eucharistic revival—that is to say, contemplating the gift of the Eucharist, cherishing the gift of this sacrament, and seeking to live this sacrament and to take advantage of its grace.
The adoration of the Eucharist is—as one Benedictine friar called it—the Mass held in contemplation.
The Eucharistic revival is an invitation, if we have been away from the Mass, to come back to Mass and to share its riches, listen to God’s Word, and celebrate with the people of God the great sacrifice and Eucharistic prayer. We encourage you to make this Lenten season special and to make the Eucharist a continued center of your spiritual life.
Join us Sunday after Sunday here at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs; pray with us and deepen your understanding of the presence and the call of Christ in your heart. We pray that you may enjoy a blessed Lenten season. We join with you in prayer, and we rejoice with you in the many gifts that God gives his people. Amen.
– Bishop Paul R. Sanchez
(Note: A video recording of this message is available on our YouTube channel. Please subscribe.)