A Word from Your Pastor - February 15

Dear Parishioners:

Lent is coming!  This Wednesday, we will enter into a time of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  It is meant to be a time of opening our hearts more and more to God’s grace so that we surrender to His action in our lives.

I invite you to decide to live the best Lent ever this year.  Choose as an individual and as a family to center all your activities on your relationship with Jesus. 

Pray.  Pick up the Rosary.  Do a Divine Mercy Chaplet.  Read the Bible.  Memorize prayers of your favorite Saint.  Attend Stations of the Cross with your family.  Spend time on Wednesday for Adoration.  Go to a daily Mass once a week as well as Sunday Mass.

Fast.  Go ahead and give up chocolate or some other favorite food this year.  Turn off the television or your favorite gadget.  Change how you respond to daily frustrations.  Open your mind and heart to a different way of thinking.

Give Alms.  Increase your stewardship for the Season of Lent.  Pick a new charity that needs your support.  Spend time with someone who would be lifted up by your presence.  Give of yourself in a way that costs you personally.

Ask the Lord to make known to you how to live this Lent.

Catholic Lenten Regulations

1) Abstinence on all the Fridays of Lent, and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

• No meat may be eaten on days of abstinence.
• Catholics 14 years and older are bound to abstain from meat. Invalids, pregnant and nursing mothers are exempt.

2) Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

• Fasting means having only one full meal to maintain one's strength. Two smaller, meatless and penitential meals are permitted according to one's needs, but they should not together equal the one full meal. Eating solid foods between meals is not permitted.
• Catholics from age 18 through age 59 are bound to fast. Again, invalids, pregnant and nursing mothers are exempt.