Dear Parishioners:
Tuesday is Mardi Gras or as it is also known, Fat Tuesday. Traditionally a day that finds us feasting on pancakes, chocolates, donuts, beer, whiskey, wine or even a cigar or two! I presume you don't need much encouragement from me to celebrate Mardi Gras or make this Fat Tuesday a feast!
So, allow me to direct your attention to Ash Wednesday. There was a time, and it's still the case in many places, when Ash Wednesday would see lines of people streaming into churches to be signed with a cross of ashes on their foreheads. My experience , however, tells me that the Ash Wednesday crowds are getting smaller than the regular weekend numbers. Granted, some folks go to Ash Wednesday services near their work places but my guess is that a number of Catholics no longer count Ash Wednesday the important day their parents and grandparents did.
Happily this week is not school vacation so families are not away skiing in the snow or swimming in the sun. We have an Ash Wednesday School Mass at 9:00am, so our students and their families can prayerfully begin the Lenten Fast of forty days. Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation but nonetheless it's a unique day on the church calendar. It is truly a powerful way to begin the Lenten season. I encourage you wherever you may be on Wednesday, to make an effort to go to Mass and to be marked with the sign of the Cross by which we are saved.
There are particular days of fast and abstinence in Lent when the whole Church participates in the Lenten practice. Ash Wednesday should be a day of fasting from eating between meals and also abstinence from the eating of all meat. Fridays in Lent are also days of abstinence form meat. We take up the cross of Christ with our ashes and are told to “Repent and believe in the Gospel” and “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.”
The ashes we receive are a reminder to us of three things in our lives as disciples. First they are a sign of our mortality, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Lent reminds us that we all die and so, like at the beginning of creation, we need to be infused with the breath of life, with God’s life. Yes we all die, but God wants to raise us, even now. Lent is not just about a minor course correction in our life but about a death and resurrection, Christ’s and ours in him.
Second, as seen in the prophets of the Old Testament ashes are a sign of repentance. They are a summons to repent and believe in the Gospel. And third, they are a means of supplication and prayer for others and their salvation. We wear ashes for all three purposes. Lent is about returning to the Lord with our whole heart, helped by him to make it clean. It’s a time of conversion as we repent and believe in the Gospel. It s a grace we should not receive in vain, but act on with urgency in order to be reconciled to God, So take up the cross of Lent, by praying more, fasting more and giving more alms to the poor and needy.
We have added an extra daily Mass at 12:05 in addition to the 7:30am Daily Mass. Going to Daily Mass during Lent is a venerable tradition. I encourage you to do it as it makes Lent more prayerful, meaningful and can even change your life for the better! We have scheduled daily Confession, Monday thru Friday, before the Lenten 12:05 Mass. There is an extra guest Confessor visiting during Lent at Monday Confessions at 6pm. In addition, All Day Confessions take place on Saturday, March 21st! And Confessions every night of the Mission. Ample opportunity for Confession this Lent to get reconciled with God and neighbor!
Stations of the Cross are every Friday in Lent at 7:00pm. It is a beautiful spiritual devotion and I encourage every parish family to come on Fridays. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat and a time of penance as we recall our Lord’s crucifixion on Good Friday.
Next weekend we begin our Lenten Mission with a terrific young priest and dynamic preacher. Fr. Tom Macdonald from Boston. It’s a great way to begin Lent! So make the Mission! What are you giving up for Lent? Make Lent a fruitful forty days of conversion! Pray, fast and give alms! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.
