April 5, 2021

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today is a new day for all of us. After our celebration of Jesus Christ’s glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday, we now enter our Easter season, during which we reflect for 50 days on that glorious event. This period is particularly meaningful for our two neophytes, a woman and child who entered our church as new Catholics at the Easter Vigil Mass through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and the modified rite for children. During this period of Mystagogy – a Greek word meaning ‘to lead through the mysteries’ – the neophytes will reflect on how their catechetical formation now leads to a life of Christian love. As a faith community, we can support them by praying for them and modeling lives of discipleship.

This period of Mystagogy is not just for the newly initiated. As baptized Catholics, we are all called to reflect on the sarcramental graces we received through Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist and deepen our own relationship with Jesus Christ. As then-Catholic blogger and, now, Fr. Evan Ponton wrote in his excellent reflection, “Mystagogy: Living the Mystery” in 2016, ongoing Mystagogy is important because our relationships with the sacraments change as we grow as individuals and encounter new challenges in our lives and circumstances. In turn, he wrote, the sacraments change us.

This Saturday, two of our parish ministries will offer new and very different ways to reflect on different aspects of Church teachings, offered through our Holy Father’s writings and Catholic Social Teaching. At 8 am Saturday, April 10, the Saturday Morning Spiritual Reading Group will begin discussing and reflecting on “Fratelli Tutti,” Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on fraternity and friendship. The hour-long discussions are held at the same time each week on Zoom. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Ministry Coordinator Trish Olin at (240) 355-5753, so she can arrange to get you a copy of the book and send you the Zoom link. 

 

Also on Saturday, the Parish Pastoral Council’s Ad-hoc Committee on Racism will facilitate the first of two listening sessions on “Four Courageous Conversations on Racism” from 12-2 pm on Zoom. I will lead the first of the two listening sessions, during which parishioners will share their knowledge, awareness of and personal experiences with racism by focusing on two questions during each virtual session. We hope it will be a thoughtful and thought-provoking dialogue. If you would like to register for the listening sessions on April 10 and 17, e-mail committee members Vincent Price or Chris King. 

On this Easter Monday, I wish you all a blessed and peaceful start to the Easter season. This will be the last of our daily Flocknote messages during Holy Week and Easter; I hope they have helped usher you into a prayerful season in which we welcome Jesus Christ into our hearts anew. 

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John