"Father, Help Us...."

And so, church, as Sunday morning dawns, a blessed Passiontide to one and all.

Sure, the designation no longer formally exists for these last two weeks of Lent. Still, the renewed liturgy resonates to no small degree of how the journey of these 40 Days intensifies in the season's home stretch, in the hope that we'll get the hint. At the same time, though, in her wisdom and care for her own, Mother Church doesn't leave us completely hanging, either, as the bulk of the Lectionary cycles for this Sunday foretell what is to come, that we might take heart along the curves and bumps of the road just ahead.

Yet at its core, folks, the goal of these two weeks is perfectly summed up from across the ages in this Sunday's Opening Prayer -- "Father, help us to be like Christ, your Son... / Inspire us by his love / and guide us by his example"... that, together, we might rise like him on the last day.

Along those lines, as we enter into each year's most powerful reminder of what the process entails, let the echoes of Ash Wednesday return, both to prepare and to lead us into these graced days....



As ever, buona domenica a tutti... but above all, to you and yours, every blessing, grace and gift you seek in the journey that ramps up today, that we might all make the best of it.

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