ASH WEDNESDAY:
February 22, 2023 Sacred Heart Cathedral celebrations: 12:10 & 7pm Our Lady of Victory celebration: 6pm Contact your parish/ mission directly for times STATIONS OF THE CROSS:
Sacred Heart Cathedral: Every Friday at 7pm
HOLY WEEK:
April 3rd to 8th Easter Triduum Mass poster - Schedule to be determined Check back closer to the date FOR FAMILIES:
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WHAT IS LENT?
Lent is a 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that starts on Ash Wednesday & ends on Holy Thursday. It's a time of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter. We seek Him by reading His Word; we help others through giving alms; and we practice self-control by fasting. Abstinence from luxuries is important, but true inner conversion of heart is key for faithfully following Christ's will during this sacred season of preparation. In the Lent season, we remember our baptism when we were born again into a new life in Christ, and died to sin and evil. PRAYER
While almsgiving is openness to the other, prayer is openness to God. Without prayer, both fasting and almsgiving would not hold up; They would fall under their own weight. In prayer, God changes our heart, He makes it cleaner, more understanding, more generous… in a word, He transforms our negative attitudes and creates in us a new heart full of charity.
Prayer is a generator of love. Prayer leads me to interior conversion. Prayer is a vigorous promoter of action, that is, it leads to do good works for God and for our neighbor. In prayer we recover the strength to emerge victorious from the snares and temptations of the world and the devil. Lent is a favorable time for prayer.
ALMSGIVING
Giving alms has always been an important part of Lent. For many people, it means giving money to Catholic charities or some other good cause. But the concept of almsgiving goes much deeper. It is our response to the teachings of Jesus that encourage us to reach out to people in need—not just with our money—but with our time and our talents: Help those who need it, teach those who don’t know, give good advice to those who ask for it, share joy, spread a smile, offer our forgiveness to those who have offended us. Almsgiving is that willingness to share everything, the readiness to give of oneself. It means the attitude of openness and charity towards the other. Let us remember Saint Paul: “If I distributed all my property… having no charity, nothing profits me” (1Co 13, 3). Saint Augustine is also very eloquent when he writes: “If you extend your hand to give, but you do not have mercy in your heart, you have done nothing”. PENANCE AND CONFESSION
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