From the Pastor’s Desk:

Dear Parishioners,

     “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  With the words spoken on Ash Wednesday, the Church invites us all to begin a three-month spiritual renewal program. It is a program to remove the dust and rubble by the remembrance that we came from dust and rubble and will once again become dust, regardless of who we are. These are the weeks of Lent themselves. The next part of the program is the celebration of the event that took place in the darkness of the night, three days after the death of the Son of God.

     So there are a total of 90 days—three full months that the Church has set aside for this program. That is

one fourth of the year for all of us to be renewed in Christ. Let us remember that it was through His suffering and cross that Jesus entered His glory. We are invited to die to ourselves and our sinful habits to be renewed

in the Lord.

     Lent provides us with a time of self-evaluation. Have I/we been faithful to my/our baptismal promises

of rejecting evil and living in Jesus’ friendship? In the Ash Wednesday Gospel reading from the sixth chapter of Matthew, we have the means of living and walking in the footsteps of Jesus’s friendship through PRAYER,

FASTING, and ALMSGIVING (in other words, helping those less fortunate than ourselves).

     Lent is our chance to let God restore what time, sin, and neglect have covered. It’s quiet work that takes place in our hearts, in chambers of prayer, and through humble acts of love.

     Our Lenten Alms boxes are at the doors of our church. Drop something in a box each week—by giving up something—that candy bar, ice cream, glass of wine, expensive coffee, etc.