LENT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER (Ash Wednesday is on March 1st)

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. The celebration of Easter, of being reborn in the Risen Lord to a new life, will only have meaning to the degree that we ‘die to the old self”. Thus, the Church asks us to live this period of Lent, with Christ in the desert, as period of forty days devoted to inward renewal through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let us prayerfully consider before Lent how we might make best use of this time to imitate the Lord in His dedication to the Father so that His resurrection may take deep root in our thoughts, words and actions throughout Lent and forever.

• Ash Wednesday Masses: 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM, and 7:00 PM in the Church
• Ash Wednesday Confessions: 5:30 – 6:30 PM
• Stations of the Cross: A great Lenten Spiritual Devotion held on Friday evenings during Lent at 7:00 PM., or after 7:00 PM Mass on the First and Last Friday of the month in the Church.
• Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast (one full meal, and two lighter meals a day with no eating between meals), and abstinence (no eating of meat). The law of abstinence obliges those 14 years of age and older, and the law of fast obliges all those from ages 18 through 59 years of age.
• Parish Lenten Retreat: April 4, 5, 6 at 7:00 PM conducted by Rev. Zachary Romanowsky of Madonna House

The Church recommends that we observe not only Good Friday, but the other Fridays of Lent as days of abstinence, or that we perform some act of charity as an alternative – the choice is yours. Lenten penance should be external and social, as well as internal and individual.

The highest point in the Church’s year of prayer is the Easter Triduum of the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus. We prepare for this three-day period by the season of Lent, and prolong it for the great 50 days of the Easter season.

LENTEN RECONCILIATION SERVICES

• Saturday, April 1 : 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM. There will be several priests hearing Confessions.
• Good Friday, April 14, after 3:00 PM service commemorating the Passion of our Lord.
• Private reconciliation every Saturday from 3:45 – 4:30 PM