Shaping A New Normal

Since the covid pandemic started, we have heard the phrase “a new normal” battered about by commentators. They often infer this new normal to be something mysterious or that our times are too unsettled to foresee conditions in the post-pandemic world. While there are many uncertainties about the future, we have the best of models for a new world order available to us, and it is the model of the Kingdom of God.

Often the Catholic Church is accused of being slow to update and respond to new conditions in the world. As we begin to move forward from the pandemic, both the Universal and national Churches are making plans to develop a new normal for themselves and the wider world. Designs to make strides to transform the world to resemble God’s Kingdom more closely.

The first plan is the Synod on Synodality. The Church has held synods before; the plan is for this one, to be held in 2023, to be very different. The Vatican has said, “[T]he aim of this synodal process is not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of Synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term.”

Here at Holy Redeemer, we have worked hard to contribute our part in preparation for the synod. Liz McCarte and Ron Weishaar are our parish ambassadors who have been facilitating parish listening sessions. The parish has held four of them, and we plan additional listening sessions for Saturday, March 19, and Saturday, April 2. All listening sessions will start at 1:00 pm. If you cannot make it to one of the in-person listening sessions, please complete a paper survey instead. Surveys are available at the back of the church and can be completed and returned at your convenience.

Here in our own country, the Church wants to shape a new normal by deepening appreciation for the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In recent years there has been a marked decline among American Catholics in the understanding that the Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus. To help counter that misconception, U.S. Bishops have begun a two-year process to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The bishops envision the movement bringing healing, conversion, and unity to the local Church. We’ll be participating in that initiative here at Holy Redeemer.

The third major attempt to help form a new normal that reflects the Kingdom of God in our midst is Pope Francis’ call to celebrate 2025 as a Jubilee Year. In the letter instructing the Vatican to begin preparations for the year, Francis wrote he hopes Jubilee Year 2025 “can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire” after two years of pandemic and suffering. Francis chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for the 2025 Jubilee Year.

The Jubilee Year is a special year of grace in which the Church encourages a spiritual renewal for all the faithful. This renewal most clearly takes the form of offering the faithful the possibility of obtaining a plenary indulgence. Holy Years are rooted in the Mosaic Law’s requirement for a year of exceptional forgiveness, every fifty years, when the Israelites were to set enslaved people free and forgive all debts, financial and personal.

Jubilee Year celebrations in the Catholic Church were re-established by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. There have been 29 jubilee years between 1300 and 2000, and the years are spaced with the intention one is celebrated every generation. There have been special Jubilee Years to celebrate significant anniversaries, such as in 1933 to celebrate the 1900 anniversary of Jesus death. Pope Francis also declare 2015 an extraordinary Holy Year of grace.

The primary characteristic of the Jubilee Year of grace has been a pilgrimage to Rome. During that visit, pilgrims gain a plenary indulgence if they walk through the Holy Year door to St. Peter’s Basilica or one of the Holy Year Doors of one of the five major basilicas in Rome, go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and receive the Eucharist within the next forty days. Holy Doors exist in other parts of the world, and the closest to us is at the Basilica of Norte Dame in Quebec City.

Yes, the Catholic Church has many opportunities planned in the next several years to help transform our world into a new normal of justice and peace. A transformed world with less poverty and violence and a new normal that is the Kingdom of God.

Lent Begins On Ash Wednesday

This Wednesday, March 2, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the penitential season of Lent in preparation for Easter. Masses for Ash Wednesday will be celebrated at 8 am, 12:05 pm, and 7 pm. It is a day of fast and abstinence. All Catholics over the age of fourteen are obligated to abstain from eating meat that day and all the Fridays of Lent. Also, Catholics from age 18 through their 59th year must fast. They may eat only one full meal and two smaller meals to help conserve strength. The two small meals may not equal more than a second full meal.

Lent has three pillars, fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. This year plan to go beyond just the rules for the season for fasting from food and drink. Fast from whatever you feel obscures your holiness. Give alms not just from your excess but make it a real sacrifice that costs you some of your comforts. Take action to strengthen your prayer life. Consider reading Sacres Scripture to stimulate your prayer. Possibly use journaling, meditation, or another new prayer form this year. Show genuine contrition for your sins by celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I’m in the Reconciliation Room at the back of the church every Saturday Afternoon from 3:00-3:45 pm. I’m also available by appointment.

Stations of the Cross, a favorite Lenten prayer devotion, will be recited every Friday at 3 pm. We will recite a different version of the stations each week. Join us for this time of prayer.

To help guide your Lenten prayer, take a copy of The Word Among Us or My Daily Lenten Visitor Lent 2022 or both from the table at the back of the church. These booklets include a Gospel Reflection, Prayer, and a suggestion for living for each day of Lent. Take one for yourself and one for a friend. They will help make your Lent more worthwhile in 2022.