Lent: A Holy Season of Purification and Enlightenment

         A sinful world passes under the Almighty's hand. 

        Judgment is dispensed, not condemnation.

        Foreheads of dust are scoured with ash.

        Repentance meets Divine Mercy.

      “Lent is the church’s preparation for the celebration of Easter.  It is the season for the purification and enlightenment of those seeking baptism.  It is a time of spiritual renewal for the faithful.

      “Lent used to be marked by an intense obligatory daily fast.  Now only Ash Wednesday, the day the season begins, is a day of obligatory fast.  The fast reappears after Lent on the Friday and Saturday of the Triduum (Good Friday, Holy Saturday).  Abstinence from meat is practiced on all the Fridays of the season, a practice meant to renew the keeping of Fridays all year through.

      “Lent has the ability to draw a parish community together in voluntary prayer, fasting, and charity as no other season can.  Although one’s personal observance of Lent may seem to be a private matter, it takes place within the context of an entire community seeking to renew hearts and souls together.

      “During the season the parish prays for and supports those people preparing for baptism or entrance into the full communion of the Catholic Church.  The faithful give witness to the belief of the church, while those approaching the Easter Sacraments inspire the faithful with the intensity of their final preparation.”  (Taken from Sourcebook for Sundays and Seasons 2002: An Almanac of Parish Liturgy, c 2001, Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, p. 64.)

      As we enter the holy season of Lent, please reflect with me on these words from the Trappist monk Thomas Merton: “Lent is not so much a season of punishment as one of healing.  There is joy in the salutary fasting and abstinence of Christians who eat and drink less in order that their minds may be more clear and receptive to receive the sacred nourishment of God’s word, which the whole church announces and meditates upon in each day’s liturgy throughout Lent…. In laying upon us the light cross of ashes, the church desires to take off our shoulders all other heavy burdens – the crushing load of worry and obsessive guilt, the dead weight of our own self-love.  We should not take upon ourselves a “burden” of penance and stagger into Lent as if we were Atlas, carrying the whole world on his shoulders…. Penance is conceived of by the church less as a burden than as a liberation.  It is only a burden to those who take it up unwillingly.  Love makes it light and happy.” (Seasons of Celebration, 1958)

      Maybe the simplicity of our Church liturgy and sanctuary can be a reminder to help us reorient our interior focus.  In this holy season of Lent we "abstain" from the “Alleluias," and the Gloria at Mass.  We "fast" from flowers and other Sanctuary decorations.  In Lent we try to attend to faith's fundamentals.  It is our hope that if we get the basics right, then maybe the rest will follow in graceful proportion and holy balance.

                       Sincerely yours in Jesus,

                       Fr. John Seper

Ash Wednesday Schedule, March 2, 2022

Mass with Distribution of Ashes:  6:30, 8:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 7:00 p.m.