The Month of March 2026
My Friends,
“Have I arrived…”
Bishop Erik Varden is a convert to Catholicism, from the Lutheran Church. He subsequently became a Trappist Monk. Now, since 2020 he is also the Bishop of Trondheim, Norway. Bishop Varden is a prolific writer. He has a website where he posts homilies and reflections. He has written about a Lent well lived. He says this:
“These 40 days are not just a time during which we have to grit our teeth in order to arrive at our destination. It is a time during which the Lord would do something with us and in us, and that’s why it’s such a precious time.
“The whole point of the period of Lent is to prepare us precisely for Christ’s victory over death. There’s a case for saying that this is the fundamental dichotomy of Christianity. We easily think of Christianity, of the New Testament, as being structured on the dichotomy of sin/grace, sin/forgiveness, sin/redemption, and that is true.
“But the fundamental conflict is between life and death. What we’re being taught during Lent is that death is real, as a consequence of sin, but it has not got the last word.
“At the end of Lent, is it good to look back and ask ourselves if we have observed the season well? Or does that just lead to unhealthy self-recrimination or navel-gazing?
“The important thing at the end of Lent is to ask: Have I arrived? Have I actually done the journey? Where am I now? Does the proclamation of Easter, the eruption of the Hallelujah, fill me with joy? Has my heart expanded a little, become a little bit more vulnerable? Have I become freer? Those are the really important things to ask.”
Purify my desires
(A prayer during Lent)
God of Love,
through this Lenten journey,
purify my desire to serve you.
Free me from any temptations to judge others,
to place myself above others.
Please let me surrender even my impatience with others,
that with your love and your grace,
that I might be less and less absorbed with myself,
and more and more full of the desire
to follow you, in laying down my life
according to your example.
Amen
Good news of great joy…
Dick and Mary Kirschman were long-time members of the Pro-Cathedral Parish. Several years ago their adult son, Phil, was, as well. In fact he chaired the Parish Pastoral Council for a term.
More recently, their son, Andrew, a member of the Jesuit order, was ordained a priest. He celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving here shortly after, and returns from time to time to celebrate Sunday Mass with us.
We received the welcome news recently that Father Andrew Kirschman, SJ, has been appointed Provincial Superior of the Jesuits of the Central and Southern Province. We share the joy of his parents. We pray grace and peace be abounding in this new and vital ministry He entrusts to Father Drew
Faith Enrichment
Our Faith Enrichment & Fellowship Gathering will next meet on March 1st after the 10:00 Mass. The group reflects the wonderful diversity of our Pro-Cathedral family.
Recent conversations among the group have used Bishop Robert Barron’s multi-media series The Mass as a springboard for discussion.
Each meeting lasts about an hour. Refreshments are served. All are welcome.
The Irish are coming
As they do each year, “the Irish are coming.” On Sunday, March 15th the Downtown St. Patrick’s Day Observance leadership, with their families, distinguished guests and friends will join us for our 10 o’clock celebration of the Eucharist. We welcome them each year on the Sunday after the Downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
It was the initiative of this leadership group which spearheaded the initiative resulting in the erection of the Celtic Cross on the plaza of the Church. The cross was solemnly dedicated, in 2006, by then-Archbishop Raymond Burke. Names of the benefactors who contributed to the realization of the cross are inscribed on the granite plaques mounted on the west plaza wall.
A year of jubilee
The Year of Our Lord 2026 marks an extraordinary milestone for the Church of St. Louis. We will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding, in 1826, of the Diocese of St. Louis.
When the Diocese of St. Louis was founded, it included the State of Missouri, the western half of Illinois, and all American territory west of the Mississippi River and north of the State of Louisiana! From it some twenty other arch/dioceses were eventually established, including what is now the Archdiocese of Chicago!
This Jubilee Year is a time for thanksgiving for grace abounding. May God continue to prosper, in us, and through us, the good work He has accomplished, to the glory of His name, and for the upbuilding of His holy people.
Commemorative prayer cards celebrating the Jubilee Year are available at the church entrances. They are yours for the taking.
A Forest & Farmland
After the Old Cathedral on the Riverfront, then St. Mary of Victories on Third Street, followed by St. Vincent de Paul on Ninth Street, and by St. Joseph on Eleventh Street, St. John, Apostle and Evangelist was the fifth parish established in the City of St. Louis.
The definitive history of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, by Father John Rothensteiner, tells us that: “In November 1847 Father Patrick O’Brien was charged by Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick with the organization of a new congregation in what was the West End of St. Louis. The neighborhood was as yet a forest and farmland. Washington Avenue ended in an orchard on Seventh Street and devout worshipers had to plod their way along the woodland paths and unpaved streets to attend Mass at St. John’s.”
That is a lot to think about! And it is a motive for thanksgiving that, during these one hundred and seventy-eight years, “we have come this far by faith” as a hymn refrain sings.
The turning point…
The Sacred Paschal Triduum is the turning point of our lives and of our worship. In our celebration of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil we are drawn into the saving mystery of our redemption in Jesus Christ. Those three days of celebration are the resounding answer to the hymn-question chanted in every church where the Easter Vigil is kept: “What good would life have been for us had Christ not come as our redeemer?”
The schedule of our Triduum celebrations is detailed on page three of this bulletin. I encourage you to plan ahead in order that you might participate as fully as you are able!
In Brief
We keep in prayer Cardinal Justin Rigali, Margaret Czapala, Dan Prater, Paul Hogan & all who are homebound. We pray, too, for those with terminal illness or incurable disease. May God keep a careful eye on them, and on their caregivers and loved ones.
We commend to the loving mercy of God, the souls of Joseph Avance, brother of Nettie Moore, and of Bishop Richard Stika, Bishop Emeritus of Knoxville, Tennessee. Before his appointment there, Bishop Stika served as a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and pastor of Annunziata Parish in Ladue.
We “wait in joyful hope” with Will & Eva O’Shea for the arrival of their first-born, due this month.
Some of you have noted that on May 22nd my classmates and I will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our priestly ordination. That day we will concelebrate the 12:05 Mass in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis with Archbishop Rozanski That will be fifty years to the day when Cardinal John Carberry ordained us there. Hopefully our classmate, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, will be able to join us for our Golden Jubilee. Otherwise, some Catholic Cemeteries and St. John’s folks are planning something here on Pentecost Sunday, May 24th, at the 10:00 Mass. More information will come from them as they disseminate it.
Faithfully,
Monsignor Delaney