We began our yearly celebration of the season of Lent this week on February 22nd.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During Lent, we abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday.\u00a0 We give up something for Lent.\u00a0 We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.\u00a0 It is forty days long remembering the forty days Jesus spent in the desert after his Baptism being tempted by Satan.<\/p>\n
Our celebration of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.\u00a0 The ashes serve as a sign of repentance.\u00a0 In the Old Testament and Jesus’ time, ashes came from the burnt sacrifices offered for sins.\u00a0 So ashes became a sign of repentance.\u00a0 Today, our ashes come from burning palms but remain as a sign of our repentance.<\/p>\n
These are our Lenten practices but if Lent is to truly help us, then we must think about why<\/em><\/strong> we do these things.\u00a0 We might even ask why we even have a season of Lent.<\/p>\n Lent actually has its origin in what we call RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) for those who seek to join the Catholic Church.\u00a0 It was an “extended retreat” for their final preparations.\u00a0 In RCIA, this final period of preparation has become known as the Period of Purification of Enlightenment.<\/p>\n The Church realized that it would be good for all people to spend some time before Easter thinking about what we need to do to open our hearts to a deeper relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 From here, Lent was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n To deepen our relationship with Jesus, we seek forgiveness for our sins.\u00a0 We admit<\/strong><\/em> our sins by accepting the ashes and most especially by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.\u00a0 We fast and abstain from meat to remind us that our priorities lay not in earthly things but on God.<\/p>\n To make for Jesus in our hearts, we are called to spend some time in Lent thinking about what we can get rid of in our lives.\u00a0 As Jesus puts it, ‘we must deny ourselves, take up our Cross, and follow him.’\u00a0 To deny ourselves is to send aside earthly pleasures in favor of God and the needs of all his people.\u00a0 In taking up our Cross we acknowledge that we continue to face sufferings and difficulties but that, as we do, Jesus walks with us.<\/p>\n What might you change in your life to make room for Jesus?<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We began our yearly celebration of the season of Lent this week on February 22nd.\u00a0 During Lent, we abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday.\u00a0 We give up something for Lent.\u00a0 We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.\u00a0 It is forty days long remembering the forty days Jesus spent in the desert after …<\/p>\n