Ash Wednesday Mass Schedule, St. Mark Catholic Church, Vienna, VA

Turn away from sin and follow the Gospel

Below is the Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, February 22) Mass Schedule for St. Mark Catholic Church in Vienna, VA.  There is no separate time for distribution of ashes during a non-Mass.

Ash Wednesday, February 22

• 6:15AM
• 9:15AM
• 5:30PM
• 7:30PM

If you have any questions, please call the St. Mark parish office at (703) 281-9100.

Lent 2012

Soon and very soon...

Ash Wednesday is a week and a half away.  As we in the St. Mark community turn our attention to Lent, I'll post a number of ideas, activities, and articles that will help you and your family prepare for Easter through the Lenten season.

What do you do in your family?  Leave a comment and share with your fellow parishioners.

Praying with your day: the Examen

Prayer is for everyone

How has your day gone?  What are you thankful for?  Where was God during your day?

I vividly a snippet of a homily from late Msgr. Cassidy about prayer: "all of life is data for our prayer."  The Ignatian Examen is a method of prayer that takes what Msgr. Cassidy said seriously, as it uses our life experiences and asks those questions above and a few more.  The goal is to become aware of how God is acting in your life so that we can be grateful for God's presence afterward with the hope that in future days we learn to be grateful for God's presence in the moment.

There are many, many resources online on praying the Examen.  Here are two that I find most helpful.

Pray-As-You-Go Audio Examen
Before the "no turning back" point of falling asleep, play this audio meditation version of the examen (MP3 link).  I've used this before and it brings me much peace.

The lady (with a foreign accent) guides the listener through the course of their day from morning to evening, asking questions and allowing time to reflect.  Within eight minutes, you'll find that God was more present in your day than you might have thought, and have an opportunity to speak to God about whatever it is that went on in your day.  Peaceful music helps settle even the most restless listener's heart so they can more authentically enter into the meditation.

Five Step Prayer Method
In a website crammed full of good resources for prayer, the page How Can I Pray? stands out.  On the page you'll find an explanation for praying the Examen with easy to understand explanations.


Here are the five steps.  To see the complete explanation click here.

1. Become aware of God's presence
2. Review the day with gratitude
3. Pay attention to your emotions
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow

However you can pray through your day, give it a shot!  You won't be disappointed.  But don't take my word for it.

Do you have another way of praying through your life experiences?  How?

Image credit: More Good Foundation on flickr

Beauty & the Beast: 2 Teachable Moments

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see the re-release of Beauty & the Beast (in 3D!).  After adjusting to the (somewhat) cheesy-ness of the 3D, I immediately did what any good DRE does, think about how this film applies to our Catholic faith.  As I did with the Lion King re-release in 3D, here are two key faith and moral moments/themes to talk about with your children after the movie.

Belle's Selfless Love
Belle's father, thrown in prison at the hands of an angry beast, is sick with a potentially deadly illness.  Upon seeing her father, Belle feels like she only has one choice: to save his life by offering herself in a prisoner exchange.

Highlights

• Belle's love for her father and her desire to save his life drives her to selflessly give up her future in exchange for her father's life.  Although we're not always faced with such a high stakes choice, we decide daily how to love and interact with our family.  Self-sacrifice in small things goes a long way.
• Even though Belle knew what she did was right, it still hurt and caused her much sadness.  The same is true for us.  Sometimes doing the right thing hurts emotionally, but at the end of the day we need to follow our conscious to love one another.
• Lumiere (the candlestick) stands up to the bully, suggesting that the Beast let Belle stay in better living condition.  We should always be concerned with how others are treated, especially the downtrodden and the poor.  But our concern needs to move us to action, like it does for Lumiere.

Love: the Foundation of Good Relationships

Love, love, love.

A much wider theme throughout Beauty & the Beast is the importance of love in a relationship.  The reason Gaston wants to marry Belle is not because he feels a great love for her, but rather because desire to have "the best" in everything in life, even at the expense of other's freedom -- he's willing to throw Belle's father into the insane asylum if she doesn't marry him!  Furthermore, Gaston has no respect for Belle's desires and interests (throwing her book into the mud).  He doesn't love her, but wants to use her for his own benefit.

Contrast that to the relationship between the the Beast and Belle.  Although it starts a little rocky (the Beast has anger issues), the Beast develops a genuine concern and love for Belle, even allowing Belle to return home at the risk of remaining a Beast forever.  Before that, the Beast risks his life to go after Belle, protecting her from a pack of wolves.  And of course, in the memorable scene, the Beast gives Belle what she most desires (well, after her freedom) -- a room full of books.  The Beast takes the time to get to know Belle so that he gets to know how to best love her.  

Then there's Belle.  Her love is not based on the exterior, but on the interior of the person.  Gaston's physical strength and appearance isn't enough to offset his arrogance and conceited nature.  The Beast's physical appearance is appalling (as is his temper), but she looks past the former and helps him with the latter as she falls in love with who the Beast is on the inside.

Summary

• Don't be like Gaston.  In any circumstance.  Pretty much at any point ever.
• Like the Beast, we need conversion of heart to love well.
• Love like Belle.  Look into the heart and past the exterior and help your friend overcome difficulties.

Which moments in Beauty & the Beast do you find helpful to talk about with your children?

Image credit: epSos.de of flickr

Classical Guitar Concert this Sunday at St. Mark (before the Game)

The St. Mark School Music Teacher, Chris Jenkins, will be giving a classical guitar concert this Sunday at 3PM in the Activities Center.  To get a feel for the type of music he'll be playing, take a listen to this clip:

A Prayer for Super Bowl Sunday

This year, the Giants and Patriots square off in what will be an exciting game.  Before we watch the game, take some time to read this prayer-poem, written by Walter Brueggemann from his book Prayers for a Privileged People.  When I read through it all, it helps me keep a good perspective on the day's events. 

H/T to Millennial Catholic Blog

Presentation of the Lord: a musical meditation

About Today

Today we Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin.  As required by Jewish law, Mary and Joseph went to the temple to pray and dedicate Jesus, the first born, to God.  In the temple, they ran into Simeon and Anna.  When he looked at Jesus, Simeon prayed the a prayer now prayed nightly in the Night Prayer, found in Luke 2:29-32 and reprinted below:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:

my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people: 

a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

Musical Reflection
Sit back and take 4.5 minutes to listen to this musical reflection on the Presentation, a song called "Simeon's Joy" by Danielle Rose:


What kind of response do I give when I'm in God's presence?