Dear Friends,
Our readings this weekend once again are focused, sharp, and insightful to guide us along the ways of the Lord rather than the ways of the world. In the Gospel, Jesus is guiding us to a self-reflection or introspection preparing us to enter into the penitential and holy season of Lent.
Yes, Ash Wednesday is this week and our schedule of distribution of ashes can be found elsewhere in this bulletin and on our usual social media platforms.
Lent is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in a much more concerted and conscious manner. Why Lent? I would suggest because the busyness of life and the things of the world tend to divert our attention away from God so that we become self-focused, this-world limited. Our penitential efforts open us up to the grace, blessings, and presence of God in new ways, leading us to the joy and glory of the Lord’s resurrection and our salvation in Christ.
The Church prescribes a bare minimum in regard to fasting and abstinence during these days:
“…all persons who are fourteen years of age and older are bound to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022, on all the Fridays of Lent (with the exception of Friday, March 25th, which is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord), and Good Friday. Further, all persons eighteen years of age and older, up to and including their fifty-ninth birthday, are bound to fast by limiting themselves to a single full meal on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday, while the other two meals on those days are to be light.”
Lent is not just about giving something up. However, fasting or abstinence from some kind of food, drink social media, internet, television radio, or other things, even if we change up weekly what we are fasting from, is a great way to grow towards a more conscious openness to God and His graces in our lives.
Additionally, we are encouraged to attend daily Mass whenever we can, to spend some time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, to pray the Rosary, to attend or personally pray the Stations of the Cross, to read the Bible, to make it to Confession, and to be generous in charitable giving to those in need. Operation Rice Bowl is a wonderful way to participate in helping to feed the hungry.
While the choice is open to each of us, the important thing is that we consciously choose what we will engage in before Lent and/or week by week during Lent.
May our Lenten journey be filled with God’s grace and strength so that renew inwardly through prayer, penance, almsgiving, and Sacramentally through Confession and frequent Communion, we will rejoice in the glory of Easter Sunday!
God bless you, God love you,
Monsignor McCulken
