These last weeks of Lent & Holy Week are a busy time of the year. As we draw to the end of the Lenten season & enter into the holiest days of the Church year there is a lot of planning and preparation to be done, there are details that need to be figured out, homilies to be written, and questions to be answered. It’s all worth it, very worth it, in many ways this is my favorite time of the Church year, but at the same time it is also a very busy time of the Church year.

   In all that busyness, it is so, so important to take the time to pray and so in this column I would like to extend an invitation to you to join me in prayer. Certainly to join me in prayer by remembering the parish, myself, and our staff in your intentions, but also to physically join me in prayer.

   On Monday, March 27th from 6:30- 7:30 pm I am going to be praying a Holy Hour in church (at St. Patrick’s). There’s not going to be anything overly formal about the Holy Hour...no music, no formal prayers, no homily, etc., just time for silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, but you are most welcome to join me in prayer that evening. I will be in the church praying from 6:30 until 7:30, so please feel free to stop in yourself & pray during any or all of that time. Like I said, there won’t be anything formal so even if you can stop in for 10 minutes, please feel free to do so. There is a lot to get done, our lives can be very busy at times, but it’s important that, no matter what, our lives are centered around God & in prayer.

   It’s my hope to do something like this on perhaps a quarterly basis throughout the year & to rotate the parish. So, while this particular “Open Church” night will be at St. Patrick’s I hope to host another one at St. Vincent de Paul at another point during the year.