Greetings in Christ!
Before I forget…I’ve noticed signs popping up in our Church…people taping signs to doors, confessionals, etc. I really appreciate the effort to help, but I would rather no one put up signs in the Church. I’ve removed scotch tape from our beautiful wooden kneelers in the confessionals and our doors and it bums me out. Again, thank you for trying to help, but I’d rather we didn’t do that.
But now, on to the big news: Holy Lord, Lent is upon us!
Can you believe it? We start this week with Ash Wednesday and we are offering the following services:
6:30 a.m., 8:00 a.m. (with our school kids), 12:15 p.m. (this is an ash distribution service only), and 6:00 p.m. There will be NO Confessions at 5:15 p.m.
Sacrifice is our theme this Lent.
As Catholics, one of the most powerful tools in our spiritual armory is sacrifice. When you or I choose to sacrifice in the name of Jesus, we participate in powerful, powerful things: we discipline our bodies, learning freedom from our desires. We discipline our emotions, learning freedom from our feelings and a stronger commitment to truth. We allow God to teach us when we sacrifice and the devil is powerless against such things.
So, what are some ways we can sacrifice this Lent? We can sacrifice our time: disabuse ourselves of the myth of “my time.” You and I do not possess time; all time belongs to God. We can make a firm and specific commitment to God that this Lent, he gets first priority on our schedules through personal and communal prayer.
We can sacrifice our goods: is it time to pass on to the poor and needy those things that are not essential for us, but would be for them? Do we give to the Church, to other charities in a meaningful way? Are we, in the words of Jesus, storing up treasure in Heaven or on earth?
We can sacrifice to tame our impulses: food is a big one for me here. I eat more than I should and I do not think about what I eat. I need to remember that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (a huge temple!) and I should not let my impulses decide what I eat and when I eat. I’m going after this one.
I’ve been asked about the idea of simply deciding this Lent to be a better person “fasting from gossip, cruelty, etc.” My initial reaction is that we are supposed to be doing that all the time. Lent is the time to take it up a notch, to reach beyond the norm. Think of it like a spiritual boot camp or a spiritual Spring Training…it’s the time we refocus by going above and beyond our daily struggles and giving more of ourselves to Him Who Gave His All for us. Honestly though, that is just my opinion. I don’t know if I’m right on this or not.
In terms of confessions during Lent, I cannot encourage you strongly enough to go. I believe we offer a lot of confession times and I ask you to try to utilize those. It’s not uncommon to get a lot of calls during Holy Week asking for a confession and, if we can, we’ll do that, but it is a crazy week schedule wise and I ask us to make the commitment to take care of our Holy Obligation in a manner that is not last minute.
On March 9 we will be offering confessions from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with multiple priests helping us. That’s a day I think we should set aside and get a good confession in. If that doesn’t work, we have two priests from 5:15 until 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday and at least two priests every Saturday from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m., with three on the first Saturday of the month! Beyond that, don’t forget that almost every day we have an hour of confessions at St. Mark with one priest.
Whew! This is a long one. I love this season. Let’s prayerfully and intentionally approach this Holy Season with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
I thank Jesus every day that I get to be your priest.
fjk