Fr. Christopher Etheridge, IVE
Stabat Mater Series: First Week of Lent

I preface this short reflection by saying, that I have decided to focus my Wednesday homilies for the rest of Lent on the Marian hymn, Stabat Mater. I will not be able to get through all the verses, but focusing on a new one each week I hope to use Our Blessed Mother's example to help us enter the mystery of her Immaculate Heart and it's intimate union with Christ.

The first verse of the hymn reads, 
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
 
At, the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.

As some of you might know, this year is the first year since 1945 that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday have coincided. At first, it might seem that the two celebrations couldn’t be any more different, since Valentine’s Day has become the rather worldly, sentimental, and saccharine carnival of earthly, emotional love, and Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, with its somber liturgies, fasting, abstinence from meat, almsgiving, and the like.  
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Yet, as strange as it might seem, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are closer than we might think: both point us beyond that one day, on towards the greatest love that there is. 

Fr. Christopher Etheridge, IVE
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

In today’s Gospel our Lord teaches us what the true measure of our forgiveness should be…without measure. When asked by Peter how many times we must forgive our neighbor who offends us, Our Lord gives a loaded answer.

“Not seven times” he tells Peter, “but seventy times seven.” In other words he is saying, “without limit”. As St. John Chrysostom says, “Our Lord did not limit forgiveness to a fixed number, but declared that it must be continuous and forever”.[1]

Fr. Christopher Etheridge, IVE
First Sunday of Lent

Today’s Gospel begins sort of abruptly. It begins,

          At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

What “time” is it referring to? Well, in St. Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is led into the desert after the “time” of his baptism. But why, after His baptism and that awe-inspiring spectacle—the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove and the echoing voice of God the Father proclaiming delight in His Son—would He be led into the desert?

St. John Chrysostom reminds us why.

Fr. Nathaniel Dreyer, IVE
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear brothers and sisters, although it’s hard to believe, Lent is almost upon us. This coming Wednesday will be Ash Wednesday, and we’ll have our forty days of preparation for the commemoration of the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

​Lent is a time for returning to God, a time to focus on what’s really important, and so today’s readings give us a nice “warm up.”