March 23, 2025

Dear Parish Family:

Next Sunday (March 30) we will begin our Annual Solemn Forty Hours Eucharistic Devotions. The origin of the Forty Hours Devotion is not completely known. It is traced  back to 1527 in Milan, Italy, as a time of special prayer asking God’s protection during a war. The devotion spread rapidly. In Rome, periods of forty hours of Solemn Exposition of the Eucharist were scheduled to form a continuous time of adoration from church to church. Saint John Neumann was influenced by this devotion growing up in Bavaria and promoted it in the U.S.

The Forty Hours Devotion is an opportunity to gather as a community before the Blessed Sacrament to pray. “Forty” is a significant number. Noah was on the ark for 40 days. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. Jesus fasted for 40 days. Jesus laid in the tomb for 40 hours from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Ascension Thursday occurs 40 days after Easter. So in the middle of these 40 days of Lent we will offer 40 hours of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Our Homilist this year is Father Hugh Gillespie, a native of Jim Thorpe, PA, and a graduate of Marian High School, Tamaqua and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He pursued his PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin. During that time he was introduced to the writings of Saint Louis de Monfort.  He put aside his PhD program and entered the Company of Mary (Monfort Missionaries) founded by de Montfort himself. A sought after retreat and parish mission leader across the world, he is the managing editor of Monfort Publications and director of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island in Manorville, NY.  Father Gillespie will preach at all Masses next weekend as well as the daily Masses next Monday and Tuesday.  He will be available for Confessions following the evening services on Sunday and Monday.

Grace and peace!

Father Neil Sullivan