Three Holy Women Parish  have invited Cyprian to open this year's Lenten Journey with the focus on "Clearing the Confusion". He will speak at all the Sunday Masses and begin these days of reflection with a Sunday Evening Concert.  

This reflection by Cyprian sets the tone for these days and below you can find a full schedule.    

For most of the writers of the earliest era of Christianity, the mystical life is nothing other than the ultimate flowering of baptismal life: the ultimate fruition of our sharing in Jesus death and risen life by virtue of having been baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. For example, Origen taught that the mystical life is simply the working out of Christs union with the soul that has already happened with Baptism the realizing of the communion that already exists between God and the soul because of Baptism.

St. Paul is very much on this wavelength when he writes in the letter to the Colossians, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Col 3:3-4) In other words, our real self is hidden with Christ in God. In the Acts of the Apostles another of my favorite phrases of St. Paul she says that in God we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) Our deepest self is that. This understanding that our deepest self is rooted in God is a clear and authoritative testimony from both Scripture and Tradition. If we are going to speak of what human being is (or of what being human is), we have not said enough until we speak of God in whom we live and move and have our being, who in some way is our very being. The brilliant author Martin Laird writes that there is a lot of talk in contemporary theology and philosophy about what a self is and how we find our true selves via theEnneagram, the Meyers-Briggs. These things, however, can only tell us so much. Laird says, If we are  to discover for ourselves who we truly are that inmost self that is known before it is formed, ever hidden with Christ in God (Ps 139:13; Jer 1:5; Col 3:3)the discovery is going to be a manifestation of the ineffable mystery of God Who we are, our life, and our self, is something that is hidden with Christ in God, as St. Paul wrote in Colossians. So, union with God is not something that needs to be acquired but realized. I love that word realized: somehow it means at the same time to make something real (to realize a plan), and to become aware (I suddenly realized that). Maybe when we suddenly become aware of something, it becomes real. The reality, which the term union points to is already the case, Laird says. So, this union we have with Christ only needs to be unfolded, and this union realized.

Thats what St. John of the Cross is referring to when he writes of the union of likeness. Our journey is that journey: having been created in the image of God we move into the likeness of God. Thats the good news. The bad news is that to uncover or recover that union with Christ in ourselves, sometimes we need to do a lot of stripping down. That is what the season of Lent is about. While the

catechumens are preparing for their Baptism, we are renewing our own baptismal promises. We are recovering and recommitting ourselves to the essentials of our spiritual life. In some sense, we are shucking off some of the layers of falsity and habit that we have allowed to accumulate. We are clearing the confusion about ourselves from our lives.

Schedule: 

Sunday, March 13

Music Concert with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio

St. Hedwig, 1702 N Humboldt Ave., 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Reception to follow

Monday, March 14

Evening One of Parish Retreat

Worship the Lord God and serve Him alone... Who is God? I AM WHO AM

St. Hedwig, 1702 N. Humboldt Ave., 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Reception to follow

Tuesday, March 15

Morning Talk, Music, and Breakfast with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio

Holy Rosary, 2011 N. Oakland Ave., following 9:00 a.m. Mass

Evening Two of Parish Retreat

We do not live on bread alone, but on the Word... Who is Jesus? Who do you say I am?

St. Hedwig, 1702 N. Humboldt Ave., 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Reception to follow

Wednesday, March 16

Evening Three of Parish Retreat

Do not put the Lord your God to the test... Who am I? This is who you are!

St. Hedwig, 1702 N. Humboldt Ave., 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Reception to follow