The Third Sunday of our Long Lent

This morning the image below appeared as a memory on my Facebook feed. The attached post was to encourage folks to join us for Sunday Lenten Vespers at Holy Rosary. Of course, in the three short years since then, Father Wagner died, the church building was shut down, and finally our parish itself was suppressed.

These three years have been filled with sadness and mourning. But for those not in our parish, this last year has seen that sadness spread. The COVID Plague for a long time forced us away from Mass, and even now a general dispensation remains in effect, though many parishes have resumed public Masses. Of course, you must generally sign up for these in advance.

Some parishes are flourishing, but most are simply managing the crisis day by day. And we are now coming up to the Third Sunday in Lent. This was the point last year when the COVID outbreak became a full-fledged panic, and all of the churches in our Archdiocese were shut down.

When we celebrated our last few Masses outside at Holy Rosary in the summer, the whiteboard in our sacristy still had the information for the Second Sunday in Lent, like a time capsule, or like the Mary Celeste of churches, hastily abandoned.

Now in the midst of the plague, three additional parishes in Tacoma are being suppressed, and single new parish will be raised in their place. Many people from these parishes are hurting, as we at Holy Rosary have been hurting for a long, long time. They have joined us in the carrying of a new Cross.

But the Cross is only the prelude to the Resurrection. Easter is coming.