Dear friends at Saint Frances Cabrini and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception parishes:

The fifth week of Lent, which we are now entering into, is also known as Passiontide week. Passiontide is a time of immediate preparation for the celebration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This week (fifth in the season of Lent) and especially during Holy week, the sacred texts (i.e. prayers and readings at Mass) begin to introduce us into the sorrowful events that are also part of the Paschal Mystery. The wording of the entrance antiphons(1) for this week is quite telling and striking.

On Monday:
“Have mercy on me, O God, for people assail me; they fight me all day long and oppress me” (Cf. Ps 56 (55): 2.)
On Friday:
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in distress. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies and those who pursue me. O Lord, let me never be put to shame, for I call on you” [Ps 31 (30): 10, 16, 18.]
On Saturday:
“O Lord, do not stay afar off; my strength, make haste to help me! For I am a worm and no man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people” (Cf. Ps 22 (21): 20, 7.)

The antiphons mentioned above are taken from the psalms. The Lord Jesus prayed with these psalms many times over the course of his life. I can imagine Jesus reciting by heart, over and over again, these same lines as the time for his passion drew near. In fact, these antiphons truly delineate his destiny and mission: encountering the worst of evil and overcoming it by loving to the end (see John 1:13.)

In the following lines, Bishop Barron outlines the evil that came to meet the Lord at the time of his passion:
“From the explicit betrayal of Judas [… to] the more subtle forms of resistance and denial. [For instance…] when Peter denies that he even knows him or when the other disciples fall asleep at his moment of truth {[…] (sloth in the presence of the good).} […Also] the great disorder and injustice of the Sanhedrin […and] Pontius Pilate who knows the truth but won’t follow through on it…”(2)

These and other forms of sin and disorder come to meet the Lord at the time of his passion and, as Bishop Barron also says, “Jesus is overwhelmed by it:” “My soul is sorrowful even to death” (Matthew 26:38.)  

Brothers and sisters, in certain times of our lives we too might have also become overwhelmed by these or other expressions of evil. Passiontide is a reminder that where Christ goes, as he himself says, “there also will my servant be” (John 12:26.)

Easter, however, is also a reminder and indeed a making present of the reality that evil has been conquered. The Lord encourages his “poor and little ones,” those who cry out for help in the face of a given manifestation of evil and says to us: “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33.)

As we continue our Lenten journey and join the Lord in his Passiontide, may we remain hopeful and eager to celebrate the feast day of our salvation at Easter, certain that the Lord “… has thrown down the rulers from their thrones, but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1: 52-53.)

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1.The entrance antiphons are the short liturgical and scriptural lines the priest recites before introducing the sign of the cross at the beginning of Mass.  
2.Why Did Jesus Have to Die the Way He Did? - YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcKV65-9uY)

Sunday:     Jer 31:31-34/Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15 [12a]/Heb 5:7-9/Jn 12:20-33 or Ez 37:12-14/Rom 8:8-11/Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 [7]/Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45     

Monday:    Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62/Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 [4ab]/Jn 8:1-11
Tuesday:    Nm 21:4-9/Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21 [2]/Jn 8:21-30

Wednesday:    Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95/Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56 [52b]/Jn 8:31-42

Thursday:    Is 7:10-14; 8:10/Ps 40:7-8, 8-9, 10, 11 [8a, 9a]/Heb 10:4-10/Lk 1:26-38

Friday:        Jer 20:10-13/Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7 [cf. 7]/Jn 10:31-42

Saturday:    Ez 37:21-28/Jer 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13 [cf. 10d]/Jn 11:45-56

Next Sunday:    Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16/Is 50:4-7/Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 [2a]/Phil 2:6-11/Mk 14:1—15:47 or 15:1-39

Normal Mass Schedule
Sundays: 7:30am, 9:30am
12:00pm (Español)
Monday through Friday: 6:15am

Normal Confessions and Adoration
Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm

Normal Parish Office Hours
Monday through Friday
8:30am-12noon

*Please note that there is a "mask-only Mass" 

option offered at Saint Frances Cabrini on Saturdays at 4:30pm.