Dear Friends,
We are well into the season of Lent. The word ‘Lent’ comes from a Latin word which means to lengthen and points us towards the lengthening days of springtime. While I do like a good snowfall and even the cold temperatures to get into the Christmas spirit, I’m happy to see them go once we get to February and set our sights on Easter. The cold, dark, and dreariness that we begin the Lenten season with will slowly dissipate. Gradually the temperatures will warm up, the grass will become green, and the flowers will bloom. The transformation happening outside is indicative of the transformation that Lent calls us to within.
It’s a good time for us to evaluate our Lenten penances—those things that we hoped to do as we began the season to draw us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Are we seeing those things that we have “given up” as sacrifices made to unite us in a small way with the sacrifices and sufferings of Christ? That is, after all, the goal. Have we embraced the three pillars of lent—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—and allowed them to humble us and help us recognize that everything that we have comes from God?
Consider making a good confession sometime before Easter. As a reminder, it is a precept of the Church to confess your sins at least once a year. If you haven’t been in a long time, the Lord is waiting to welcome you back! Don’t allow fear to keep you from experiencing the abundant grace (and joy!) that God wants to give to you. Take advantage of the many opportunities for the sacrament within our Family of Parishes and if you don’t remember how to confess, simply let the priest know when you enter the confessional and he’d be happy to walk you through, step by step. Remember, it’s not the priest that you are confessing to, but Christ Himself present in the ministry of the priest.
Let us not let these Lenten days pass us by. Tomorrow is not promised, so as we heard on Ash Wednesday, let us be ambassadors for Christ today! This begins by allowing God’s grace to work within us to bring us from a place of vice to virtue, darkness to light, death to new life. Spring is on its way—let us anticipate it with our lives.
With my prayers for a fruitful Lent,
Fr. Mario Amore