St.  Thomas Aquinas University Parish

Stations of the Cross for the third week of Lent will be available for viewing at your convenience online after 1:00 pm today, Friday 3/20. Click on picture above to access the video.

Click here for access to the written text and prayers for the stations if you would follow along with us on another device.

Dear Parish Community:

In his marvelous short story The Little Prince, the author Antoine de Saint-Exupery absolutely got it right when he said, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."  Up until recent weeks when our lives changed because of the coronavirus pandemic, for the great majority of us, we were not seeing much of anything with the heart, and we were looking at things that were not only not essential, but in the big picture, the picture that God sees, were things that really did not matter in the end.  One of the great blessings among many that can come to us through our being separated from each other, from our quarantines, from our having to stay home is that we can not only begin to activate, but to develop into a powerful force in our lives the ability to see with the heart.  The heart sees beyond, it sees the way that God sees.  So what are some examples of this?  When you see your chapped, red, dry hands from all of the washing you've had to do, the heart goes beyond the dry skin and sees how your hands now remind you of your mom or your wife and all of the dishes that they washed out of pure love of you and your family.  When you look out of your window and see the blue skies with the wind gently swirling the clouds across, instead of being sad that you can't go out to your normal places, your heart shows you memories when you looked up at that same sky during an Easter egg hunt when we were all younger, thanking God for the sunshine, or when you last were able to watch the kids at their soccer game and you thanked God by looking up at that sky for the gift of family.  Or when you are staring at those walls of your bedroom or living room, the walls which you have been staring at since you were instructed to stay at home, instead of becoming stir crazy, your heart shows you that someone built those walls.  Those walls are a gift--you have a home, your have shelter; but the heart also shows you that you have a place where you are loved unconditionally, your true home that is God Himself.  Yes, the heart shows you all that is essential.  So as we head into Holy Week, a week where instead of coming together to mourn our sins and to rejoice with great joy over what our Lord Jesus did for us, though we will be apart, as long as we can see with our hearts, we will all be united, for we all have a piece, and you make sure you get yourself a great big piece of the heart of our Lord Jesus that will keep us together through his Sacred Heart, no matter what we have to go through. 
We will soon be announcing the schedule of televised Masses and services for Holy Week and I am hearing confessions outside in the courtyard on an individual appointment basis from 9 to noon on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week.  But I have to limit it for now and we have to keep the church closed for now because the peak of the covid-19 should occur in the next two to three weeks so we all need to do our part to stay put, to stay healthy so that we can rejoice as never before when we are all able to come back together again in the Presence of our Risen Lord.  You all take care and may the blessing of our Lord inspire everything about you, but especially your heart.