Lent: When It's OK To Give Up

Today the Christian world begins 40 days of Lent.  Lent is a time for people to re-orient and re-focus on their spiritual lives as we prepare for Easter and, eventually, our own Resurrection from the dead.  These 40 days are a time to step back and see how our spiritual life is going and to make any adjustments and changes.

We begin Lent with Ash Wednesday as a reminder that someday we will indeed die.  Ashes are placed on our foreheads as a reminder of our mortality and that we should always be ready for the time we will meet God.

The Catholic Church has three main traditions during Lent:

Prayer
Fasting
Almsgiving

Our school community filled out cards called Bona Opera which is Latin for "good works."  Monks fill out similar cards at the start of Lent, they are a list of ways we hope to practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent.  The students and faculty placed their cards in a basket when they entered the gym for Mass today and they were brought up in the offertory and placed at the foot of a cross we set-up.

Father Richard Dion of Saint Anthony's Parish was our celebrant today and he was assisted by Deacon Charlie Pawlowsi, a transitional deacon for the diocese who will be ordained a priest in June.  Father Richard's homily will be posted later on our website as a podcast.