Feast and Famine: St. Patrick and St. Joseph

Dear Faithful adherents of Septuagesima70,

This week we celebrate two great feast days (and maybe three), and the following week another one.

St. Patrick a first class feast in many Dioceses of the US and in Australia, falls on Monday. St Joseph, the Patron of the Universal Church falls on Wednesday. (For those who are Benedictines in spirituality or religious adherence, there is also the feast of St. Benedict on Friday).

On these days, according to our practices, we will be relieved of all of our Septuagesima70 Penances, except one (I know so many will want to retain cold showers).

It can sometimes be difficult, now especially after the Ember days, to give up our established penances which have been going so much better just now. We, however, give ourselves a pause in the spirit of fasting and feasting that even Holy Mother Church proposes, and then with Catholic resilience, one the feast is over, we pick them up again immediately on the next day. This is, in microcosm, what happens when we sin, and confess, and start again. We aim to get quickly back to the established patterns of Catholic living.

So please enjoy these days and let us be grateful for the penances we have offered to God with such devotion, and celebrate these lives of these wonderful Saints who allow us to enjoy a little break from our Lenten disciplines.

(Septuagesima70 Hard Adherents are not relieved of most of their penitential practices, but at their election, are able to enjoy fish on these feast days, and dessert and liquor with meals)

St. Patrick….pray for us

St. Joseph…pray for us

St. Benedict…pray for us.

In Our Blessed Lord and Our Blessed Lady,

Fr. Withoos

Chaplain