Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Andrew the Apostle,

For information about all of the news and events at the parish, please read the bulletin or our parish website. Here's a glimpse of what's coming up:

  • I'm very excited about our St. Andrew's Parish Lenten Mission, which will begin this Sunday, March 19, and continue through Thursday. It will be led by Fr. James Searby.
  • Fr. James Searby of St. Timothy's in Chantilly and the host of the "Holiness for the Working Day" podcast will be our mission director. He is a gifted preacher and teacher and a fitting choice to lead us through these days of spiritual growth.
  • On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the mission has the same schedule: 7:00 Holy Hour with a Rosary, a sermon from Fr. James Searby, and Benediction. This will be followed by Confessions at 8:00 PM which will continue until the lines run out.
  • The schedule it different on Wednesday, March 22, when Confessions begin at 6:30 PM until about 7:45 PM leading up to 7:50 PM Benediction. Fr. Searby will be the principal celebrant at the 8:00 PM Mass and his homily will be his final talk. This closing Mass of the Mission will be in English.
  • For more information, please see our flyer.
  • After the 5:30 PM Mass on Saturday, March 25, Dr. John Bruchalski will speak about his new book, Two Patients, which describes his conversion from participating in abortions to pro-life medicine. It's an amazing story and I hope that you can join us. His book will be available at the event.
  • I will continue our series on Marian Apparitions at 2:00 PM on Sunday, March 26, with a presentation on Our Lady of Knock. Lunch at 1:30 PM. You may bring your own lunch or order it through the Religious Education office. See the flyer for more details.

This Monday, March 20, is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Usually, it falls on March 19, but since the 4th Sunday of Lent falls on that day, the Solemnity, it is transferred to Monday. A solemnity is the highest feast in the Church, so when one falls on a Friday in Lent, the obligation to abstain from meat is automatically lifted per Canon 1251. Even though it is not a day of abstinence or fasting, it can be a day to lift or reduce our Lenten penances to celebrate the glory of God on the feast of the Patron Saint of the Universal Church.

We will have two additional confessors joining Fr. Smith and me on Friday, March 31. This is the Friday before Holy Week, so I encourage you to take advantage of the additional priests. We will begin Confessions at 6:00 PM on the 31st, which is thirty minutes earlier than we begin on the other Fridays of Lent.

We are recruiting children to sing in our Easter Children's Choir at the 12:30 PM Easter Sunday Mass! Practice on Sundays (3/19. 3/26, and 4/2) and 4:30 PM on Monday, April 3. For more information, see the advertisement in our bulletin or contact Patty Laing at plaing@st-andrew.org or 703-817-1773.

There are still openings for our pilgrimages to Fatima and Italy this year, although Fr. Smith's trip to Fatima in July is almost full! Please see our website for more details.

Thanks to the diligence of parishioner Bill Jugus, a repairman was found to fix the electronic system in our bell tower that has been silent for many years. The last time they were serviced was in 2008! They now work, so make sure to listen for them when you are around the parish campus!

The last scheduled open house for our St. Andrew the Apostle Parish School is Tuesday, March 28, from 9:30 AM until 11:00 AM. For those who desire their Catholic faith to be an integral part of their children's education experience, please stop by. The school is a vital part of the mission of our parish, so please keep our students, faculty, and staff in your prayers.

Along with being the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Monday is the vernal equinox, which marks the first day of spring. I've spoken in the past about how I'm not much of a cold-weather person, so I look forward to the longer, warmer days to come! One of my favorite things to do is feed the birds here at the parish, so it's also exciting to see the different species that come and go with the changes of the season. Goodbye dark-eyed juncos; hello ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Some birds become more vibrant in color in the spring breeding season, the most dramatic being the American goldfinch, in which the males go from olive-gray to brilliant yellow. This transformation, called molting, takes place when they lose their drab feathers and replace them with new, colorful ones.

For the goldfinch, this transformation to brilliance comes naturally. For us, it takes God's grace and our free will. This is what the season of Lent is all about. It is a time to allow God to glorify us, to brighten our souls, in preparation for the Holy Triduum.

This Sunday is Laetare Sunday in the Universal Church, the Fourth Sunday of Lent when the we rejoice in the glory that is to come (Gaudete means rejoice in Latin). You will see Fr. Smith and I change colors this Sunday, as we wear the traditional rose vestments instead of the usual violet of Lent.

Laetare Sunday is a reminder that this season of Lent is not meant to be a time of panance and sacrifice for the sake of being miserable. Instead, it is rooted in our desire to rejoice with our Triune God who walks with us each moment of the day. The more we recognize His presence, especially when we are practicing our Lenten penances, the more we allow Him to lighten our loads and brighten our souls. When we try to slog through our penances on our own, without our minds of the love and the promises of Jesus Christ, the more we will fall, and the less effect our penances will have.

For the remainder of this Lenten season, may we be more aware of God's presence in our lives and that loving Him more completely and giving our lives ot Him more generously are the reasons that we increase our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in this sacred season. Our awareness of Him will lighten our burdens and allow Him to transform us that we, too, may be glorified by His grace and our souls may reflect His glory more brilliantly on Easter morning.

Be assured of my prayers for you. Please pray for me and for each other.

In Christ,
Fr. Wagner