What Are You Doing For Lent This Year?

That might be the underlying question in our lives over the next ten days as Ash Wednesday approaches on March 1. The Latin word “ Lent” means “spring” and the Lenten Season is a veritable “Spring Training for the Soul.” Just as the Red Sox are in Fort Myers getting in shape for the beginning of a new baseball season, so we are challenged during Lent to “get in spiritual shape” for the Easter renewal of our commitment to our Christian faith. Our lives are punctuated by regular “new beginnings” that offer us a sense of making successive “fresh starts” along the course of our life journey. New Year’s Day always represents a “fresh beginning” as we embark upon a new year with stolid resolutions that will set our lives on course to become the people that we want to be.

Lent represents one of those “fresh start” moments as we receive the ashes on our foreheads that denote our commitment to another “new beginning” in our determination to become the persons that God has created us to be. The Catholic Church recommends three time-honored disciplines for the Lenten Season: 1. Prayer 2. Sacrifice 3. Charity.

These are the spiritual disciplines that should direct our decisions concerning “What will I do for Lent this year?” Certainly, Daily Mass during Lent holds a priority place in the commitment to increased prayer during Lent. We will publish on the cover of next week’s bulletin the schedule of Daily Masses during Lent at all the churches in our area. For the ‘early birds’ the Trappistine Nuns at Saint Mary’s Abbey at 300 Arnold Street in Wrentham welcome you to their 7:15 Daily Mass each morning.

Sacrifices during Lent might be coupled with charity as we “give up” something we enjoy and apply the monetary value of that sacrifice as almsgiving to some charity. The “Rice Bowls” from Catholic Relief Services and the ‘Baby Bottles’ at Saint Martha have traditionally provided a convenient way for people to set aside the money from their sacrificial acts that will then serve to alleviate the needs of the poor. You might also want to consider donations to the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in our parishes. The collection at the Ash Wednesday Liturgies is entrusted to the Saint Vincent de Paul Societies at both parishes to assist the poor in our local communities. We also observe the details of Catholic discipline of fasting and abstinence that will be published in next week’s bulletin.

The center-point of our Lenten Season at Saint Martha Parish and Saint Mary Parish will be the Holy Week Mission that will take place March 27, 28, 29 (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday) at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Martha Church. We will be blessed by the charismatic preaching of Patrick Nolan, S.J. who will invite us into the unique Jesuit spirituality that animates the prayer life of Our Holy Father, Pope Francis.’ We will be invited and challenged during the Lenten Mission to take “time out” of our busy schedules to provide some time and space for the Lord. Please mark your calendars now and set aside these dates as the culmination of your Lenten Season.

May this upcoming Lenten Season truly represent a “new beginning” in our lives of faith!