Dear Cathedral Family,

Throughout salvation history, God breaks into human lives in decisive moments. Moses encounters the Lord in the burning bush. Samuel hears God calling him in the night. St. Augustine is pierced to the heart by the words tolle lege—“take and read.” In each of these moments, grace breaks through, and nothing is ever the same.

With this biblical and spiritual horizon in mind, I am pleased to introduce our Lenten theme for 2026: Lent 2026: A Breakthrough of Grace. This theme invites us to recognize that God still desires to break into our lives with His saving grace, with His very divine life.

When we do not experience this breakthrough, it is usually not because grace is absent. Rather, it may be because our hearts are distracted, closed, or not yet fully disposed to receive what God so generously desires to give.

Every Lent is a privileged season of grace. This year, I invite you to open your heart more intentionally to the breakthroughs God desires to bring about in your life. As part of this journey, I warmly invite you to join us in a Cathedral-wide Lenten Challenge video series, focused on the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each week of Lent, a short video challenge will be shared to help us live these practices more intentionally, disposing our hearts more fully to the breakthroughs of grace God desires to give in this holy season.

Join us as a cathedral parish family in this shared Lenten challenge, so that we may become more attentive, more available, and more ready to return to the Lord with our whole heart.

May this Lent be a true breakthrough of grace for us all!

In the Heart of the Savior,
Rev. Matthew Gonzalez, Rector