Last night I talked a little about my experience of praying the Stations of the Cross with St. Faustina’s Way of the Cross.  I’d like to return to that for the Twelfth Station, “Jesus Dies Upon the Cross.” In the reflection of His death on the Cross, Jesus says to Sister Faustina: “All this is for the salvation of souls. Consider well, My daughter, what you are doing for their salvation.” 

Last Friday when the big storm was predicted to come through we went ahead and canceled Stations and Soup. This was unusual*, but since we don’t have a way to contact everyone, I came over and waited just in case people didn’t know and came anyway. (BTW, this is why we want everyone to sign up for our FlockNote contact system, so if you haven’t, please do! Anyway,) I put the books out for stations and left the lights on in case people wanted to pray the stations privately.

As we approach Holy Week, we are given another great healing story, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Last week we heard of the man born blind being healed which had apparently never been done before, and this week, even more amazingly, a man is raised from the dead after 4 days.  

Well we have reached the halfway point of the solemn and penitential season of Lent which means we dedicate a day to joy, a day to rejoice.  It is called Laetare Sunday, where the Church expresses hope and joy in the midst of our Lenten fasts and penances.

​​​​​​​Thanks for being here to worship on this first Sunday in Lent.  You’ll notice a couple of things different for Lent, some you may have already noticed. For the Penitential Act, we will recite the Confiteor, the “I Confess” prayer, followed by the Kyrie.  There is no Gloria during Lent, and no A-word before the Gospel.  

I just want to start by saying thanks to everyone who prayed for me during my vacation to Italy. It was great, it went really well, travel was smooth, weather was great, food was awesome, and I got to see some amazing “Church things.” Some people call it Catholic Disneyland over there, just so many Catholic things to see and do. 

In today’s readings we have two characters which deserve attention, Ahaz and Joseph, two characters which I have often wondered about their mindsets when they each encountered God in these particular stories.

The first thing that jumped out at me when I read this weekend’s readings was this  sentence from Isaiah: “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: … a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”

Today, as we begin Advent and the new Church year, the readings the Church gives us tries to make us more attentive to, hopeful about, and prepared for the moment of the great advent of God, the second coming of Christ. God has come to us, God will come to us again, but we must also make our pilgrimage to God.

Well, if you were here last weekend and heard me announce that one of our two Dubuque transitional deacons, Jeff Frieden, would be here assisting, and would be preaching, I’m sorry to disappoint you.  Dcn. Jeff got sick late this week, and he couldn’t make it.

So back in July some priest friends of mine started a book club and invited me to join.  There are only four of us in it, including Fr. Scott Bullock, who was the pastor here nine years ago, and we basically pick a book, read two chapters of it, and discuss it every two weeks over Zoom.

In our first reading and psalm we heard that the Lord hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed. According to our Gospel, He also hears the cry of the tax collector. 

Today’s readings are about perseverance in prayer.  When I was thinking about the readings, I could not help but think about Perry Mason, who is the chair of our parish council, and also the head usher at the 9:30am Mass.

Well there’s a lot going on here today at Nativity. I kinda want to change today’s psalm just a little bit.  If today your pastor asks for money, harden not your hearts.

As many of you know, since the start of Covid I have been “appearing” on the radio, the four Radio Dubuque stations which share our parking lot right over here.  One of the segments is called “Father Time” and it is every Thursday morning at 8:10am on 92.9 KatFM, hosted by Lisa Bennett.

Today's obvious theme is the need for humility. At its root, humility is a recognition that there is something greater than us. That something in the Christian life is God. Wonder and awe will lead us to humility, because we are in such awe of God's gracious love, His sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and His mercy which endures despite our failings.