Each year on Ash Wednesday, Christians enter the season of Lent—a 40-day time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This 6-week period helps us prepare for the celebration of Jesus' resurrection at Easter. During Lent, we are called not only to read sacred Scripture (prayer), serve (give alms), and practice self-control (fast) but also to an inner conversion of heart by seeking to follow Christ's will more faithfully.
To help you get the most out of Lent 2022 and prepare for Easter in a powerful way, St. Gertrude Church is offering an engaging 4-week speaker series, a unique 3-day parish mission, daily confession, Friday Stations of the Cross, and more. We invite you to join us for one, two, or all of these events—a sure way to have a life-changing Lent.
To help you get the most out of Lent 2022 and prepare for Easter in a powerful way, St. Gertrude Church is offering an engaging 4-week speaker series, a unique 3-day parish mission, daily confession, Friday Stations of the Cross, and more. We invite you to join us for one, two, or all of these events—a sure way to have a life-changing Lent.
Lenten Speaker Series
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The Presence of God
7 p.m. | March 10, 17, 24, 31 St. Gertrude School Cafeteria Be enlightened and inspired as you listen to four Dominican friars speak about God's presence in sacred Scripture, Church history, the sacraments, and moral life. Each talk will last 40 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A and a reception. For more information about our speakers, check out their bios at the bottom of this page. |
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March 10, 2022 | Thursday
The Presence of God in Sacred Scripture Listen as Father Joseph Alobaidi, O.P., shares how God perceives his people through the Bible and how the people of God perceive their maker. |
March 24, 2022 | Thursday
The Presence of God in the Sacraments Drawing on his years of teaching and experience as the director of liturgy and music, Father Jordan Kelly will open your eyes to God's unconditional love for you—and for all people—as our Father surrounds us with physical and tangible signs of his unfailing presence in our lives. |
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March 17, 2022 | Thursday
The Presence of God in Church History Just before his Ascension into heaven, Jesus promised his disciples, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). In this lecture, Father John Langlois, O.P., will explore how our Lord has faithfully kept this promise in sustaining his Church through times of persecution, heresy, and scandal, giving us hope that the challenges facing the Church today will not end in defeat but in new life. |
March 31, 2022 | Thursday
The Presence of God in Moral Life In this insightful talk, Father John Corbett, O.P., will highlight how being made in God's image sets up the morality governing the 10 Commandments and how it likewise forms our understanding of virtue as enabling life-giving contact between ourselves and God. |
Parish Mission
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Living in the Presence of God
April 4–6 | Monday–Wednesday St. Gertrude Church St. Augustine says that God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves—and everyone wants to believe it's true. But with the business of ordinary life, the roar of conflicting ideologies, and worries about money, politics, and war, it can be hard to know what it really means to have God so close. Over the course of three nights, Father Gabriel Torretta, O.P. will explore different aspects of this urgent subject. 11:30 a.m. Mass
Followed by adoration 7 p.m. Talk Followed by adoration and Benediction (Confession available) Can't make it in person? The 11:30 a.m. Mass and 7 p.m talk will be livestreamed each day on our YouTube channel. |
Stations of the Cross
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Fridays | 7 p.m.
St. Gertrude Church Recall and mediate on 14 specific events of Jesus' passion and death for our redemption by praying the Stations of the Cross, offered on the following Fridays during Lent:
Did You Know? George Yostel, a parishioner of St. Gertrude Church, designed and sculpted our bronze Stations of the Cross, which were cast in Munich, Germany. |
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Holy Week & Easter Liturgies
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Sunday, April 10–Sunday, April 17, 2022
St. Gertrude Church April 10 | Palm Sunday 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 6 p.m. Mass April 14 | Holy Thursday 8 a.m. Office of Readings & Morning Prayer (Church) 7:30 p.m. Mass of Our Lord's Supper* 10 p.m. Night Prayer (Church) April 15 | Good Friday (No Mass) 8 a.m. Office of Readings & Morning Prayer (Church) 3 p.m. Celebration of Our Lord's Passion (Communion Service)* 7 p.m. Stations of the Cross and Entombment of Christ April 16 | Easter Vigil 8 a.m. Office of Readings & Morning Prayer (Church) 9 p.m. Easter Vigil Mass April 17 | Easter 8 a.m., 10 a.m.*, 12 p.m., 6 p.m. Mass |
*The following liturgies will be livestreamed on St. Gertrude Church's YouTube channel:
– 7:30 p.m. Mass of Our Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday
– 3 p.m. Celebration of our Lord's Passion on Good Friday
– 10 a.m. Mass on Easter
– 7:30 p.m. Mass of Our Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday
– 3 p.m. Celebration of our Lord's Passion on Good Friday
– 10 a.m. Mass on Easter
Meet Our Speakers
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Father Joseph Alobaidi, O.P., is a retired professor of Bible theology and languages. (He was a research assistant at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, a Bible professor at The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, and a lecturer in Islamic Theology and post Biblical Judaism in Washington, D.C.). He is currently a novice instructor.
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Father John Langlois, O.P., was elected the prior of St. Gertrude Church in 2020. Born in Berlin, NH, he entered the Dominican Order in 1985 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1991. He holds a doctorate in Church history, and has spent most of his priestly life teaching, both at Providence College in Providence, RI, and at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Immediately before coming to St. Gertrude, he served as president of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies for seven years.
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Father Jordan, Kelly, O.P., grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. A lifelong teacher, Father Jordan has taught every grade from Kindergarten through graduate school. On the graduate level, he taught liturgical and sacramental theology and sacred music. Father Jordan has served as the director of evangelization for the Archdiocese of Chicago, pastor of the Church of St. Catherine of Siena in New York City, the executive director of Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry in New York City, and most recently the pastor at St. Sebastian Church in Providence, Rhode Island. Father Jordan's greatest love is the liturgy, and liturgical music has a special place in his heart. As St. Gertrude's director of music and liturgy, he is often found playing the organ.
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Father John Corbett, O.P., was born in 1951 and is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Providence College in 1973 and was ordained a Dominican priest in 1980. He received the Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Fribourg University in Switzerland. He has taught moral theology at Providence College, The Josephinum in Columbus and the Dominican House of Studies in Washington D.C. He is currently helping both in the Novitiate with spiritual direction and in the wider parish with Mass, preaching, and confessions.
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Father Gabriel Torretta, O.P., was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, and is the youngest of four children. He was raised Presbyterian and converted to Catholicism in high school. Before joining the Order, he studied pre-modern Japanese literature at Columbia University. He was ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers in 2015 and served for three years as parochial vicar at St. Gertrude's. He is currently writing a dissertation at the University of Chicago on early medieval ideas about beauty.
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