Tag: Lent
A Millennial’s Guide to Lent
Maybe our sacrifices won’t be heroic, but let’s at least make ’em hurt Growing up Catholic in the 1980s and ’90s, I was taught to do one thing during Lent: give up sweets. For most of my life, that is what I did each year, and I thought nothing about it. However, I began to… Read More ›
“You’ve got mail!”
“You’ve got mail!” There was a time when those words were associated with an electronic voice on one’s computer, announcing the arrival of e-mail. Do you recall when getting an e-mail was a novelty? Nowadays, my students think of e-mail as quaint, something that only “older” people (such as professors) use for business purposes. If… Read More ›
Vacare Deo: What Will Fill the Spaces We Empty This Lent?
In a few days it’ll be Lent, and I will again hang in the oratory the small plaque with two words: Vacare Deo, to empty oneself for God. It’s a reminder for spiritual cleaning. As it’s midwinter, and I’m already bored with being indoors, I am looking for things to do. This translates to “it’s… Read More ›
Believers are called to follow Christ in the “desert”
1. Last Wednesday, with the rite of the imposition of ashes, we entered Lent, a penitential journey of preparation for Easter, an occasion for all the baptized to renew the spirit of faith and to reinforce their commitment of evangelical consistency. As today’s Gospel suggests (Mk 1,12-15), during the 40 days of Lent, believers are… Read More ›
Even the tiniest Lenten sacrifice is valuable
The Catholic Herald (28/2/14): . . .There was a time when the concept of penance was widely understood even if the practice of it was in decline but that was also the time when biblical literacy was prevalent and there was some corresponding understanding of the concepts of sin, judgment and offending Infinite Goodness. Yet… Read More ›
As We Enter the Season of Lent
In this Catechesis, I would like to reflect briefly upon the season of Lent which begins today with the Ash Wednesday Liturgy. It is a 40-day journey that will bring us to the Easter Triduum — the memorial of the Lord’s Passion, death and Resurrection, the heart of the mystery of our salvation. In the first centuries… Read More ›
Ash Wednesday
The palms once green used in procession to honor the Christ before his passion began, are now black ashes, their life having run it course, sitting before us asking us what we see in the dark silent fruit of their now extinct lives. So placed on our foreheads in prophetic utterance they speak, pointing to… Read More ›
The power of fasting
Fasting is powerful because when we fast we are detaching ourselves from the world. This allows us to transcend the enemy, who is the prince of the kingdoms of the world. He once offered those kingdoms to Jesus and of course Jesus in His might and girded by fasting refused. We see that even Christ… Read More ›
If Lent is 40 days, why are there 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter?
“The 40 days of Lent” has always been more of a metaphor than a literal count. Over the course of history the season of preparation for Easter Sunday has ranged from one day (in the first century) to 44 (today in the Roman church). Officially since 1970, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at… Read More ›
Ladder of Divine Ascent – Lenten Reading Schedule
The Ladder (from which St John received the ‘nickname” Klimakos – “ladder” in Greek) was written in response to another Abbot’s advice on promoting health spirituality in his monastery. St John’s reply proved such a thorough and clear exposition that it has become de rigueur Lenten reading in Eastern Christians monasteries all over the world. As St John’s writings are also… Read More ›