Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     As we draw near to Holy Week our Lord is preparing His disciples and followers for His approaching death.  But the paradox of this is that He is in charge.  This is all part of God’s plan to demonstrate the magnanimity of God’s love for His creatures.  It appears that the Lord is the victim of man’s inhumanity to man and in a way that is true BUT the plan of God is to conquer what seems to be so dominant in life with His compassion, mercy and sacrificial love. This is the new law that we hear Jerimiah speak of in the first reading. It is transformative An even though it seems impossible to grasp, it is nonetheless the divine formula for the “new Israel”–the Church; the “new Covenant”–the paschal Mystery (the death, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit); and the Way for those who are followers of Jesus.

    In these most Sacred Days that soon will be upon us we make every effort to partake of this transformative renewal in our own lives.  The Paschal Mystery is not only something we celebrate It is what we become.

With Blessings,

Father Langan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Today is Laetare Sunday, (rejoice Sunday) because we have reached the halfway point of our Lenten journey and our cause for rejoicing are the words we hear from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “God is rich in mercy!”  This alone should give us hope and consolation as we review our lives and desire to conform them more to the will of God. This of course is a process as we are journeying through Lent.  We leave behind the darkness of sin and increasingly enter into the light, even the liturgical vestments of the day reflect this.  

      Physically we are confused, disoriented and directionless when we are in the dark but as we approach the light reality becomes much clearer and it delights our eyes, mind and heart.  Who would not want to revel in the sunshine.  We know how good it makes us feel.  Freedom from sin does the same and that freedom comes to us so readily through the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation.  The richness of God’s mercy in this Sacrament is the guarantee that God has wrapped His loving arms around us and set us free.  In order to receive this wondrous mercy we need only come humbly before the Lord, Who on Easter Sunday evening empowered His Apostles and their successors, bishops and priests, to dispel the darkness of sin and assure the penitent that they indeed are His sons and daughters.  As the hymn says: What wondrous love is this.

    We are halfway.  Lighten the rest of your Lenten journey by getting rid of the excess baggage of sin so that you can hold your head up high and see the light of divine mercy.

With Blessings,

Father Langan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Lent moves swiftly and we do not want to be surprised that it has passed and we did not take advantage of the purifying grace of the season. As we hear in the Gospel for today Jesus knew human nature well, that is, He knows us!  And what he knows about us is that if we do not put our mind to something it will slip by and grace-filled opportunities will be lost.  

    From Exodus we are re-acquainted with  the very foundation of the moral law, The Ten Commandments.  Though originally inscribed upon stone the Law was meant to be inscribed upon our hearts.  Perhaps a good Lenten discipline would be to memorize the Commandments and even to do it has a family devotion, testing each other on how well they have been implanted in our memory.  These, after all, are the Code by which we conduct our lives.  Some have wrongly thought that our Lord abrogated the Commandments.  Certainly not!  He did however raise the bar to a greater perfection in the giving of the Eight Beatitudes.  In many ways, these show us how to put the Commandments into practice.  Together they are the pathway to life showing us how to imitate our Lord.  

    So why not ratchet up your Lenten discipline.  Memorize both the Commandments and the Beatitudes and let them be the guide for your evening examination of conscience and your preparation for a good Confession in this season of purification.

With Blessings

Father Langan

Enjoy your meat-free Friday meals by purchasing our cheese pizzas for Lent. Our pizzas will be for sale on Fridays, March 1, 8, 15, and 22. The pizzas are 12 x 16 “Take-And-Bake” freshly prepared that day. The cost is $14 per pizza. Pizzas will be available for pickup in St. Mary Magdalen Church basement from 10:00AM – 4:30PM. PREORDERS ARE REQUESTED TO GUARANTEE AVAILABILITY. Pizzas can preordered by texting 814-932-7184 before noon each Friday. Please include your name, number of pizzas, date for pickup and estimated time of pickup (10:00PM – 4:30 PM.).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Last Sunday we journeyed with Christ into the desert to contemplate His encounter with the devil and the temptations He endured.  In today’s Scripture, we hear the great temptation that Abraham, our father in Faith, endured and wonder how one could possibly fulfill God’s request.  Some may indeed question the benevolence of God for demanding such obedience.  There are perhaps many things we question when it comes to God’s expectations of us and that in itself puts us to the test.  How we respond determines the strength of our Faith.

    Perhaps the best way to approach these tests of Faith is to continue to call upon God for the gift of Wisdom.  We see and experience life very myopically and in our narrow vision fail to see the whole picture.  God indeed knows the full story , the final outcome but we do not.  very often we think: “this is the way it is supposed to be.”  But in fact God has a better outcome.  We don’t know it at the time but when all is said and done we may well be happily surprised that God’s plan and purpose was and is far better than anything we could imagine.  Who would have thought that Abraham’s obedience would bring the blessing of nations of Faith -filled people?   Who would have thought that the crucifixion of the Son of God would bring Salvation?  Yet this is the way God operates and as confounding as it may be we ask for that wisdom or at least that confidence to trust in the Lord to remain faithful to the end, just like Abraham.

With Blessings,

Father Langan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     By now, the ashes that marked our foreheads at the entrance way to Lent have been washed away.  The external sign that, though gone, has not diminished our resolve to draw closer to Christ by our ardent prayer, fasting, and acts of charity. A way to keep focused on these Lenten disciplines is to imagine ourselves in the desert with our Lord.  Certainly, we cannot go into the desert physically but we can use our imagination to enter a place where there are no distractions, no noise.  It may be as simple as turning off tv, social media or those things that diminish our listening to God.

    Such meditation begins with the glorious covenant that God made with us at our Baptism.  In today’s Scripture from Genesis we hear of God’s covenant with Noah.  A rainbow signifies the connection between Heaven and earth, between God and man.  It is a prelude to our personal connection between me and you and God that occurs at our baptism.  In the Flood all evil was washed away.  In our Baptism sin was destroyed and life given. Our ascent to Easter is a preparation for renewing our Baptismal promises and also to support those who will be received into the Body of Christ at the Easter Vigil.  We  pray for and assist, with our prayers, those who are in preparation for that glorious day.  This Sunday I will be accompanying our Catechumen to the Cathedral for the Rite of Election.

    Beginning next Sunday and the following Sundays of Lent we will have sung Vespers and Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament in St John’s Church beginning at 4 PM.  Though not the desert it is certainly a time to draw closer to the Lord and experience His Presence in our midst.

With Blessings,

Father Langan

7:25 AM & 12:05 PM-St. Mary’s

4:00 PM-Dist. of Ashes Only-St. Mary’s

5:00 PM-St. Joseph’s, Rileyville

6:00 PM-St. Bernard’s, Beach Lake

STATIONS OF THE CROSS–FRIDAYS DURING LENT:

11:40 A.M. & 7:00 P.M. – St Mary Magdalen

5:00 P.M. – St. Joseph, Rileyville

6:00 P.M. – St. Bernard, Beach Lake

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

      Do not be caught unaware!  This is not a dire warning but rather a reminder that Holy Lent will soon be here, in fact this coming Wednesday. This year we have had a very short time between Epiphany and Lent and so we may feel it has sneaked up on us, nonetheless we have time to set for ourselves our spiritual program for the 40 days ahead.

     Generally, after Christmastide we fall into a spiritual slump.  Those externals of the season are gone, the dark and cold take their toll and we start to long for more sunlight, warmth and sunshine.  Of course, we anticipate the new life and growth that come.  But first we must pass through the “valley of death” which we call Lent.  Surely it is not a time of gloom and doom but rather a time for regeneration and spiritual renewal.  Mother Church, brilliant and loving as She is toward Her children, provides the necessary disciplines that make Lent successful, not in a material sense, rather for our spiritual growth and development. Prayer, fasting, and acts of charity are the disciplines we happily take upon ourselves to reach the goal, which is greater union with Jesus Christ.  Walking the Stations of the Cross with Him on Fridays or any other time, daily Rosary, even better, daily Mass, Bible reading and study, learning more about our Faith; abstaining from the things we think we cannot live without, following the regulations for fasting from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays and having abbreviated meals; assisting in our parish outreach programs through the St. Vincent de Paul society; making a sacrificial donation to our sister parish of St. Anthony in Ghana, are just a few of the many ways we can make our spiritual journey to the great and glorious day of Easter.  Let us also remember in prayer those who are making their final ascent into the fullness of Faith at the Easter Vigil.

     Be sure to always take a bulletin home so as not to miss the Lenten opportunities and join in our journey together.

With Blessings,

Father Langan