This coming Monday evening, April 19, we will celebrate the feast of our parish patron, St. Hugh of Grenoble, with a Mass at 7:00 p.m. You are most cordially invited to attend, especially if you have been fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic we will not hold the international potluck dinner that usually follows the Mass. Hopefully, next year the potluck will return. The feast of St. Hugh of Grenoble actually falls on April 1, but because the celebration of Holy Week, the Paschal Triduum, and the Easter Octave take precedence, we have delayed the celebration of his feast till Monday. I love to tell the story of our patron, whose daily intercession helps sustain us in the service of Our Lord. St. Hugh was born in the year 1053 in the town of Châteauneuf-sur-Isėre in southeastern France. Already as a young man he demonstrated a great love for Christ and a talent for administrative tasks. At age 25 he determined upon a life of service to the Church as a layman in the diocese of Valence. But then things took an unexpected turn. At a local synod of bishops held in 1080, Hugh’s bishop nominated him to be the bishop of the neighboring diocese of Grenoble. Hugh was dumbfounded. He had had no intentions about becoming a cleric, much less as a bishop. But the synod prevailed upon him. In short order he was ordained a deacon and priest and then sent to Rome to be ordained a bishop by the Pope himself. And so, at age 27, Hugh found himself the newly installed bishop of Grenoble. Unfortunately, the diocese of Grenoble was in a terrible mess. Hugh immediately set about improving its administration, but the problems facing him were enormous. After two years of exhausting effort Hugh retired to a monastery and asked the pope to relieve him of his episcopal office so that he could pursue the quiet life of a monk. The pope, St. Gregory VII, the same pope who had ordained him, refused his request and ordered him back to his diocese. Chastened by the pope’s directive, Hugh obeyed and resumed his duties as bishop of Grenoble. He remained in his post until his death at age 79. Over time, Hugh’s ministry bore great fruit. His modesty, simplicity, and love for the poor—he once sold his bishop’s ring and chalice to feed them—coupled with his zeal for holiness, gradually won the day, and Hugh came to inspire in the clergy and people of his diocese a renewed faith in God and his call to holiness. Throughout his life, Hugh was plagued by a gnawing lack of confidence in his own abilities. Yet, by struggling against this natural weakness, he learned an invaluable lesson that every disciple must learn: we cannot make progress in the Christian life solely on the strength of our natural abilities but only by surrendering ourselves daily to the mercy of God and placing all our confidence in him. After a final, humbling illness, Hugh died on April 1, 1132. His reputation for holiness was so great that he was canonized a saint just two years later in 1134 by Pope Innocent II. His feast day, as I mentioned, is April 1, the day of his passage from this life to the next. St. Hugh is the patron saint of Grenoble, France and is especially venerated by the Carthusian Order of monks, an order of semi-hermits founded by St. Bruno. Hugh had been a student of Bruno’s in the theology school of Rheims. When Bruno left teaching many years later to found his new order, he came to Hugh for assistance. Hugh gave Bruno a piece of church land in the Alps above Grenoble, in a place called Carthusia. That monastery, called the Grande Chartreuse, still exists. There, and in Grenoble and Greenbelt, and throughout the Church universal, Hugh is remembered and celebrated as a good shepherd who loved the Lord and his people and spent his life in faithful service to the Gospel. In the large icon behind the altar of our church, St. Hugh stands in his bishop’s robes and with his pastoral staff beside the throne of Christ in heaven, along with our Blessed Mother. From heaven he makes intercession for us before the Lord and brings down God’s graces upon our parish. In the smaller icons on either side of the tabernacle are depicted, along with Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope St. Gregory VII and St. Bruno, both of whom played important roles in the life of our patron. If you are able, please come to the Mass in honor of St. Hugh this Monday. It’s a beautiful way to say thanks to him for his prayers and example of holiness. St. Hugh of Grenoble pray for us, your devoted daughters and sons! Yours in Christ, Father Walter .