Lent is upon us! It is a very special time of the Church year when we ready ourselves for the Holiest Week of the Year and the Holiest Celebrations of that week: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday/Easter Sunday!
To get the very most out of these three days, the Church each year suggests three activities that are tried and proven to be most helpful and most beneficial in this regard. In and of themselves they are all very good and useful – but entered into during Lent, with greater willingness and intensity, combined - they can make us truly ripe for the spiritual blessings of the Holy Week!
The three activities are: Prayer; Fasting, and Almsgiving! Or another way of saying it: Communicating Directly with God; Self-Denial, and Self-Giving to those in Need. Let us look at these three briefly and determine why they are helpful especially during Lent.
Prayer / Communicating Directly With God – This concerns the meaning of what Jesus did beginning on Palm Sunday and ending with the empty tomb the following Sunday morning! Reading the stories about these things in the Bible, chatting silently with God in the recesses of your mind and heart (as you would to a real person – God is a real person), praying the rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet daily, or just sitting quietly and listening for God to speak about these things directly to you – these are avenues of prayer for Lent. But so is public prayer – going to Mass every Sunday and during the week, if you can, (on Wednesdays here) or wherever you might be!
Fasting / Self-Denial - We know from the experience of our own lives that giving up something now in order to get something later makes one more appreciative of whatever it is that you are going to get later. For example, giving up that extra donut now will get you a smaller waistline later on. Denying oneself of certain things seems to make us appreciate them all the more when you get them back to some degree later on. But if we add the dimension of denying oneself "for the purpose of opening our spiritual senses more widely," "stretching our spiritual winesacks to newer limits" – we will thus to be able to receive more of a future spiritual good – and with a deeper understanding of what it all means. Such is our preparation for Holy Week and Easter. If we "open the senses of our mind and hearts," and "stretch them as wide as we can get them" – by simple acts of self-denial (with the purpose of having God filling us with joys and experiences later, in his due time) – then this Holy Week and Easter will be unlike any that have come before! It will be better by far! Fasting can be a simple act of "not doing" of "giving up" something – but it must be a non-action that is a noticeable interrupt to our normal patterns and comfort zones: skip the donuts altogether for Lent – while staying spiritually focused on Holy Week!
The third recommendation of the Church is: Almsgiving / Self- Giving to those in Need. This act was highly prized in the early days of the Church. Jesus gave his all for us; giving in his name and after his example was therefore highly valued. This was not simply charity. It was divine charity, divine self-giving after the heart of Christ himself. Giving money for the immediate use of those who very much need it – under religious supervision – is called: almsgiving. It comes from the Hebrew concept of sharing what you have with others. This is over and above ordinary contributions and tithes. It is taking some of your surplus and sharing it with those who have a great deficit, and who actually have a right to it. You are in luck! In our own area there are those who have surplus and those who have a deficit. And so we have set up – right here at St. Ambrose – just this month – a brand new kind of almsgiving program called: Friends Helping Friends – Help Thy Neighbor. Monetary donations to this fund are used immediately and directly for any parishioner or family members who are in temporary need of food, fuel oil, clothing, medicine etc. This container will be a placed here every Sunday – and anyone wanting to contribute to the fund may place money in it – perhaps extra monies saved as a family during the weeks of the Lenten Season. Angela is in charge of collecting and distributing the funds as needed. Please feel free to contact her if you or someone in your immediate family is experiencing a need. The way to "pay back the fund" (pay it forward) is to put the cash back in the container (or give it to Angela or myself) – when you can see your way to do so! [Don't go without what you need because you were too embarrassed to ask! ASK! RECEIVE! PAY IT BACK, PAY IT FORWARD!]
Prayer / Fasting / Almsgiving – over the centuries, have proven to be positive, spiritually renewing activities that can truly prepare one to better appreciate Holy Week and Easter Sunday this year. All it takes is your willingness to PRAY, FAST, GIVE ALMS! In fact this is a gospel imperative! (G) Jesus tells us to do these three very things. But to do them not to be noticed or to show off, but to want to sincerely improve your spiritual life! In a moment you will receive ashes on your forehead with the invitation to "turn away from sin and to be faithful to the gospel" – this gospel – this message – this imperative!
"Do Lent" for your own spiritual welfare and good, and you will find yourself wanting to share what spiritual goods you find in Lent with everyone, everywhere!
We will now have the blessing and distribution of ashes!
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