Spring Training to a baseball fan is, among other things, a reminder that the regular season of Major League baseball is right around the corner. To a baseball player in the "Big Leagues," it is a time to get their bodies into playing shape and to concentrate on the skills and repetitive practices that will help them to be ready to give their best and produce good results when the season starts. In some ways, the season of Lent is the "Spring Training" for all Catholics and people of some other Christian faith traditions. We are called to give ourselves to and concentrate on the disciplines of PRAYER, FASTING, and ALMSGIVING. Through our repetitive actions in these areas, we prepare ourselves for the Easter Triduum and Easter Season, and hopefully develop habits in all three of these disciplines that will bear fruit in the immediate and long term future.
I invite you to use daily the daily reflections from Pope Francis that we are making available as the Lenten season begins. Consider joining with so many of your fellow parishioners in the practice of prayer before Jesus in our Perpetual Eucharistic Chapel. You can start with a few minutes once a week, and maybe build up to an hour before Lent concludes, or just make a commitment to at least 15 to 30 minutes in there at the same time each week of Lent. Of course, we are always happy to welcome full time adorers or substitute adorers during the Lenten Seasonb. Call Mke Kerwin at 922-1531.
Lastly, there is an excellent way to combine the practices of fasting and almsgiving by participating in "Operation Rice Bowl" which encourages saving money that might have been spent on food or other pleasures and giving it at the end of Lent to Catholic Relief Services which is helping in disaster relief situations around the world and which is committed to poverty relief on an ongoing basis, also all over the world. Of course, you can choose additional means to get in good or better spiritual shape that are of your own choosing. Let the Lord and His Church guide you through the most beneficial Lent that you've ever had (including being reconciled with God and the Church anytime during Lent through the Sacrament of Reconciliation) at the times listed onf the front cover of the bulletin or during our Lenten Penance Service on April 6.
Pre-season baseball is the start of something that will lead to one team being crowned World Series Champion. Fortunately for us, the Lenten Season can lead to countless people of faith living as chamnpions for the Lord in the long term in this life and for an eternity in heaven. Join the spring training that is Lent. It is open to us all!
I invite you to use daily the daily reflections from Pope Francis that we are making available as the Lenten season begins. Consider joining with so many of your fellow parishioners in the practice of prayer before Jesus in our Perpetual Eucharistic Chapel. You can start with a few minutes once a week, and maybe build up to an hour before Lent concludes, or just make a commitment to at least 15 to 30 minutes in there at the same time each week of Lent. Of course, we are always happy to welcome full time adorers or substitute adorers during the Lenten Seasonb. Call Mke Kerwin at 922-1531.
Lastly, there is an excellent way to combine the practices of fasting and almsgiving by participating in "Operation Rice Bowl" which encourages saving money that might have been spent on food or other pleasures and giving it at the end of Lent to Catholic Relief Services which is helping in disaster relief situations around the world and which is committed to poverty relief on an ongoing basis, also all over the world. Of course, you can choose additional means to get in good or better spiritual shape that are of your own choosing. Let the Lord and His Church guide you through the most beneficial Lent that you've ever had (including being reconciled with God and the Church anytime during Lent through the Sacrament of Reconciliation) at the times listed onf the front cover of the bulletin or during our Lenten Penance Service on April 6.
Pre-season baseball is the start of something that will lead to one team being crowned World Series Champion. Fortunately for us, the Lenten Season can lead to countless people of faith living as chamnpions for the Lord in the long term in this life and for an eternity in heaven. Join the spring training that is Lent. It is open to us all!