From the Pastor:
Lent begins this Wednesday. As I think back to my childhood, the six weeks of Lent seemed as long as running a marathon! It took a few days to get myself mentally and spiritually prepared for the hard work of Lent. My initial reaction was wishing I could just skip past the extra fasting, prayers, and almsgiving to the joyful celebration of Easter, which always included my parents and grandparents together with siblings and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. However, as I thought about Lent, I realized I needed this holy season, even if it was like running a marathon. After this mini enlightenment each year of my youth, I was ready for the work of Lent!
My attitude toward Lent changed when I set aside emotions and feelings and turned toward thought and reasoning. As I prepared for Lent, with the help of my parents and parish priest, accepting the reality of what was coming, I realized I needed Lent. Yes, extra and more intense fasting, prayer, and almsgiving helped me to overcome myself. It was hard work then and remains hard work today to be, as God tells us, holy as I am holy, perfect as I am perfect. How serious do we take these words of God? Do we realize God instructs us to do this for our own good?
Even as a youth, I trusted God. I trusted that God gave the holy season of Lent to me for my well-being in this world and in the next. I recognized, with the help of self-reflection, the battle in myself between selfishness and selflessness. In our childhood years it’s very easy to adopt an outlook of life that starts and ends with self, but eventually that needs to change so that our outlook starts and ends with God and others. What helps with this is having chores and responsibilities around the home and beyond, beginning in the earliest years of childhood. Being constantly grounded in the Catholic Faith is not just helpful, but essential.
What I realized then about Lent is still true today – it is a holy season given to us by God for spiritual development and growth. We can choose what is comfortable or what gives us growth. When we’re tempted to take the easy path of “self-preservation” we should remind ourselves of Jesus’s parable about the grain of wheat only having life when it dies to itself. “Dying to self” means putting God before self in all things and putting our neighbor before self. The more we do this, the more we begin to look like Three Divine Persons of the Trinity, whom we refer to as God.
Make challenging but realistic goals this Lent, that include intensifying your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Consider daily reading of the Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church. Reacquaint yourself with the 7 capital sins and how they lead to other sins. Offer your extra spiritual works this Lent for people throughout the world experiencing great suffering. Pray for all those who are ill, including Pope Francis.
Thanks for your faith and faithfulness, and the many ways you contribute to our parish and the Church!
Gratefully,
Fr. Miller