This Sunday, when you come to Mass, you will quickly notice that our crucifixes and St Alban icon have been covered with purple or black cloths and our banner of Our Lady of Walsingham is not displayed. Why? It is Passion Sunday, which marks the entrance of the Church into this more intense part of Lent in preparation for Holy Week, a time when we practice penance of the eyes by covering beautiful images, so that they might be revealed in their glory on Easter. Veiling the crosses and images makes it all the more dramatic when we slowly unveil the crucifix on Good Friday. You are encouraged to do this at home as well, as a daily visual reminder that amplifies the penitential nature of this holy time of remembering the days of the Lord leading up to his passion and death.

In other news, I commend to your reading this document by the USCCB Doctrine Committee (on which our Bishop Lopes sits) about respecting the fundamental order of the human body: DOCTRINAL NOTE ON THE MORAL LIMITS TO TECHNOLOGICAL MANIPULATION OF THE HUMAN BODY.

Lastly, please pray for my safe travel to/from Houston as I go to our Cathedral for the Chrism Mass this week Monday through Friday. (No Confessions or Mass on Wednesday.  But yes, there is still Soup Supper and Stations of the Cross with Adoration on Friday!)

In Christ,

Fr. Davis

We're going to have a short presentation on Mission & Ministry with an invitation and sign up to join. For more info contact Peter Smith: 540-692-0822.

Faith Formation is every Saturday at 10:15am, after the 9:15am Mass. Join us for coffee, tea, plain donuts, and a variety of interesting topics week after week! This week, April 1, our topic is Holy Week in the Ordinariate. Looking ahead to Eastertide, Fr Davis will teach his 5-part series on St John Henry Newman every Saturday from April 22 to May 20, when we will look at Newman’s Life, Sermons, Writings, Prayers, and Legacy.

As members of a larger family of Catholics in the Ordinariate, we are given the opportunity to support our shared mission of evangelization through the Bishop's Appeal. St Alban’s has a goal of $4000 for this year's appeal. Your gift cultivates additional vocations to the priesthood and religious life, provides administrative support to our parishes, broadens Ordinariate-wide communications, supports parish development across the Ordinariate... and much more. Thank you for your support! Visit ordinariate.net/bishops-appeal or pick up a pledge card and envelope today.

All children (big and small) are invited to learn the Palm Sunday processional antiphon and hymn! We will rehearse this during Coffee Hour in the corner of Rm. 109 throughout Lent.