Dear Saints,

Do you remember this period of Lent from last year? These next two weeks, traditionally known as Passiontide, call for the veiling of statues and the covering of crucifixes.

Two years ago, many of you shared with me the pictures and the pain of shrouding your own sacred images. It’s a difficult thing to do, but I invite you to join me again this year in finishing our Lenten journey blindfolded.

Taking these next steps blindfolded means that we are being deprived even of those things on which we rightly depend, and no longer just those things we need to jettison (like sin, overindulgence, and all manner of self- seeking). Sacred images inspire us. Their beauty reminds us that God is at work in the world, and that his love will win the day. All of this we forgo in order to enter into a veiled time; an unmediated, unseeing abandonment to God, who himself descends into our darkness.

You might remember that I like to talk about the disciples' hike up the mountain before Jesus' transfiguration.

Every step of that journey, I'm convinced, embodied a decision to grow in trust of Jesus rather than to pull back.

The same is true for us here and now: Our being blindfolded gives us a chance to cling more desperately to Christ than we might otherwise have imagined.

This time of pandemic has not been at all pleasant, and I don't want to romanticize it. But our mission to pray and love has not been annulled, quite the opposite. Trusting Jesus more fully and following him more closely these blindfolded days, we are made to receive his love more fully and live it out more sincerely for a world that desperately needs it.

I look forward to seeing you soon, my friends. As always, if you need anything please let me know.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ