Welcome

Each Friday in Lent, St. Philip will have bilingual Stations of the Cross after the 7 pm Mass, followed by Adoration

Wednesday in Lent, The Light is On. Confession will be held at 6:30 pm before the 7 pm Mass, in addition to the regular Confession schedule.

Take part in the Lenten Scripture Challenge, and use the booklets below to read the daily Gospel passages.

The Vatican, the Diocese of Arlington, and the USCCB have prepared many materials to help us celebrate this milestone in the Catholic Church.

This Lent join us for a series of talks and discussion over 5 weeks that will deepen your understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ and his gift of the Spirit. These talks will be presented by members of the People of Praise Community. For more information and to register contact: John Mitchell @ 703-855-8976 or jhwmitchell@yahoo.com.



The Feast Day of St. Philip (and James the Less) is on Saturday, May 3.

Stay tuned for details on how we plan to celebrate this day as parish.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday, a day in which we rejoice because we know that Lent is more than halfway over, and we look forward to celebrating the Paschal Triduum and the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Just like in Advent on Gaudete Sunday, the priest wears rose-colored vestments, and the altar is decorated with flowers. This is a Sunday of joyful anticipation of what God has done for us, and the promises he hopes to fulfill in eternal life with him. The joy that God gives to us in this day, and in everyday, is a gift that he gives to us.

In this week’s letter, I invite us to continue in our journey through the vices by contemplating the vice of sloth. The vice of sloth is the vice that causes us to have boredom or sadness in regards to a spiritual or interior good that God has given to us. This vice is also called acedia, which is a Latin word that signifies spiritual apathy towards something good that God has given to us. When we fall into this vice, we mistakenly perceive a spiritual good as something evil, and we can be inclined to be saddened when we ought to be filled with gratitude towards God.

The Catechism points out that sloth is a vice that attacks the theological virtue of charity, in which we love God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength. There are a number of levels in which we can sin against charity that the Catechism illustrates to us (CCC #2094):

• Indifference – This is the sin that neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power. When we fail in this type of sin, we fail to recognize the ways that God is working in our daily lives.

• Ingratitude – This is the sin that fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return to God love for love. When we commit this type of sin, we do not give God the gratitude for what he has done for us, and we are only grateful to ourselves.

• Lukewarmness – This is the sin that compels us to be hesitant or negligent to respond to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the promptings of charity towards God or neighbor. In being lukewarm, we are hesitant to fully trust God’s providence for us when he prompts us to rely more on him and less on ourselves.

• Acedia – This is the vice we are focusing on today, also known as sloth, that compels us to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness. In refusing the joy that God wishes to give, this also attacks the virtue of hope that helps us to look forward to the goodness of eternal life with God.

• Hatred for God – This comes from pride and causes us to see God simply as one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments. This level of vice refuses to see God as one who is all-good and all-loving in our lives.

Finally, not only can we fall into sloth through inactivity, but we can also fall into sloth by being consumed by our daily tasks and not giving ourselves proper rest. God gave to us a whole day, Sunday, to allow us to rest from our work. If we find ourselves giving ourselves too much to activities, we may wish to take a step back and see where God is calling us to surrender control over to Him. It is not too late in Lent to give our hearts to Him. 

May Christ’s Peace be with you,

Fr. Briggs