Monday Message, February 2, 2026
KNOW
Pastors will receive this memo next week about record-keeping for Confirmation. I am providing it here in advance for your reference. I will be out of the office this week, attending NFCYM’s Exchange Conference with many diocesan colleagues. I realize the information in this memo may differ from current practices. It will be discussed at the priest’s meeting with the bishop in early March.
Pastors received this memo (with corrected links) last week. It includes a link to request Confirmation dates.
If you have adults who lack ONLY Confirmation, send them here.
If he hasn’t already, Deacon Chris Greer of Seton Collaborative fame will be in touch this week to see if you are interested in bulk purchasing books directly from publishers. Be on the lookout for his email. Publishers have already been informed that we plan to implement this approach to save money. If you have not heard from him, email him at this address.
If you are interested in pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from St. Mary of the Lake, let Patrick know. More details are here. We are hoping to put a cohort together from the diocese to a) save money and b) let smart people study together.
Ministry Day 2026 information and registration are now live. Check it out. We are excited to have the dicastery’s lead for communications with us all the way from Rome! If you want to register a group from your parish, please email us with the names and other details. We are happy to bill you.
Please continue to invite your catechists to the days of reflection featuring Sr. Johanna Paruch. See details here (Saturday) and here (Sunday).
All Youth Ministry Leaders are invited to two listening sessions in the coming weeks. Read the memo here and email us to RSVP.
Ready for Lent – check out these great resources.
FROM THE FIELD
Jessica at St. Luke is looking for anyone hosting a Confirmation retreat between now and early April. Please email Jessica if you can help.
Maureen Hance is looking to borrow robes for the March 20th confirmation at Christ the King and St. Therese. Please email Maureen directly if you can help.
The Diocese of Bridgeport’s Ministry of Accompaniment, in partnership with the Fiat Program on Faith and Mental Health and the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, invites applications for a unique leadership development opportunity. The Fiat Mental Health & Church Life Fellowship is a year-long formation opportunity to support you in your life and ministry. Find more information here and here.
REFLECT
Egeria (sometimes called Etheria) was a Spanish woman, probably a nun, who made a long pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 381 and 384. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land had become popular after the peace of Constantine in 313, and even more so after the journey there of Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena, in 326.
The journal of Egeria’s travels, written in Latin, was discovered in an Italian convent in 1884. It is a fascinating and informative document that provides precise descriptions of the places she visited and the liturgies in which she participated, including an account of the celebration of the Presentation of Christ at the temple in Jerusalem.
The fortieth day after Epiphany is celebrated here with the very highest honour, for on that day there is a procession, in which all take part, and all things are done in their order, with the greatest joy, just as at Easter. All the priests, and after them the bishop, preach, always taking for their subject that part of the gospel where Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple on the fortieth day. And when everything that is customary has been done in order, the sacrament is celebrated, and the dismissal takes place.
When the feast spread to the West in the seventh century, it was celebrated forty days after Christmas rather than after Epiphany, that is, on 2nd February. In the middle of the 8th century in Gaul, it was given the title “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, a name which was kept until the revised Roman calendar was promulgated in 1969.
In Rome, Pope Sergius I (687-701) instituted a procession before Mass at dawn on the feast day, with the people carrying lighted candles. From around the 12th century, a blessing of the candles before the procession was added. This led to the feast becoming popularly known as ‘Candlemas’ in English-speaking lands. While this title focuses on a secondary aspect of the celebration, it is nevertheless fitting as the Canticle of Simeon hails Jesus as ” a light for revelation to the Gentiles”.
Restoring the feast to its original title, “Presentation of the Lord,” emphasises that it is a celebration of the Lord that concludes the solemnities of the nativity, although Ordinary Time began the day after the Baptism of the Lord.
The candles are blessed using this prayer:
God our Father, source of all light,
today you revealed to Simeon your light of revelation to the nations.
Bless these candles and make them holy.
May we who carry them to praise your glory
walk in the path of goodness
and come to the light that shines forever.
Amen.
LAUGH
