February 2, 2025

My dear Kirkland Catholics,

It is not often that Lent evades February because Easter is so late that Ash Wednesday lands in March.  This means that an entire month of ordinary time in February is rare.  Each of the months of the year the Catholic Church dedicates to a particular devotion or prayer focus.

• March – St. Joseph
• April – The Blessed Sacrament
• May – Mary
• June – Sacred Heart of Jesus
• July – The Precious Blood
• August – The Immaculate Heart of Mary
• September – Our Lady of Sorrows
• October – The Holy Rosary
• November – The Poor Souls in Purgatory
• December – The Immaculate Conception
• January – The Holy Name of Jesus

And February … is The Holy Family.  Today’s theme in the homily series is virtue.  If you have children at home and are looking for specific ideas of helping your family establish virtue and imitate the Holy Family and aspire to the call that our families, be “the Domestic Church,” The Knights of Columbus have sponsored a really well-done website and free program called “Family Fully Alive” which has a ton of resources and ideas.

If you do not have children at home but are looking to make your home a place more conducive to the virtue of prayer, I highly recommend – if at all possible – spending quiet prayer time almost always in the same place and the same (comfy) chair.  That nook and chair will over time be conducive (even consecrated) for you entering into prayer more easily so that, like Mary in today’s Gospel, you can better “ponder” in your heart with God about what He is up to in your life (discernment – last week’s discipleship habit).

With love in Christ,

Fr. Brad