Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank You Thank you for your continued support of Catholic Charities in our Diocese. I know many have pledged by mail and others did so at Mass last week. If you are still discerning how you want to support the campaign, that is wonderful. Call the rectory if you need any assistance with making out your pledge.
Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Getting Ready for Lent and Catholic Charities The last two weeks I wrote and preached on the basic approach we want to take toward Lent. I encourage checking our website where you can read those columns and listen to those homilies because it is a good set up for this weekend. In a nutshell I encourage us all to look forward to being changed through the season of Lent. This change should not be my excuse for something else like losing weight so I feel better about myself. Nor is Lent about me flexing my spiritual muscles so others can see. Lent needs to be God focused: serving Him better is the goal; that’s the change we want to see happen.
Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Getting ready for Lent How often do we hear the phrase, “So what are you doing for Lent?” Now this is an innocent question, but at the same time, I feel that giving specifics about my spiritual life is not other people’s business. I think usually the question is more surface level, as in, “what are you giving up for Lent?” The church invites us to go deeper with this great season and the disciples that accompany it.
Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank you all! Thank you to all for a great Feast Day celebration last week, and for all who participated in the St. Paul Novena prayers and events. The disadvantage of having our patronal feast at the end of January is that we are in the middle of winter, so weather and the cold can keep us from celebrating as much as we would like. Even so, I think this practice of the novena and offering multiple events is helpful for people to engage with what I think is a really important date. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand parishes that skate through their feast day without their parishioners even knowing or the celebration is so minimal it does not register with folks.