Welcome to our Parish Family! Welcome Holy Season of Lent!
What a wonderful opportunity our Church gives us to step back and really concentrate on our relationship with God. That is what Lent is. Yes, it is about "giving up" , taking part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Abstaining from meat on Fridays - all beautiful traditions but with the same singular purpose of - concentrating on our relationship with God. For the next 40 days and nights we are "allowed" to do things differently. Our families, our society, all look to Catholics during Lent and they KNOW that this is a special time because they see by our ACTIONS that we are different. We start out with ashes on our foreheads. Wow. That's pretty visable. EVERYONE knows what THAT means! But ashes are just a symbol of what should be going on INSIDE us for the next 40 days at least. We are at the beginning of a journey to be kinder, gentler, more contemplative - less sinful people. Let us all pray that the people around us will know that we are living our faith long after the ashes are gone.
Sin separates us from God. God does not separate Himself from us. WE separate ourselves from Him through sin. Lent allows us the time to figure out just what we are doing that KEEPS us from being close to God - and hopefully - asking His intercession to help us CHANGE and leave sin behind us. Let us pray that through the awesome grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation we will all know the freedom FREEDOM that comes from ADMITTING to and being FORGIVEN by God for our transgressions and sins.
Welcome to our Parish Family! Welcome Holy Season of Lent!
What a wonderful opportunity our Church gives us to step back and really concentrate on our relationship with God. That is what Lent is. Yes, it is about "giving up" , taking part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Abstaining from meat on Fridays - all beautiful traditions but with the same singular purpose of - concentrating on our relationship with God. For the next 40 days and nights we are "allowed" to do things differently. Our families, our society, all look to Catholics during Lent and they KNOW that this is a special time because they see by our ACTIONS that we are different. We start out with ashes on our foreheads. Wow. That's pretty visable. EVERYONE knows what THAT means! But ashes are just a symbol of what should be going on INSIDE us for the next 40 days at least. We are at the beginning of a journey to be kinder, gentler, more contemplative - less sinful people. Let us all pray that the people around us will know that we are living our faith long after the ashes are gone.
Sin separates us from God. God does not separate Himself from us. WE separate ourselves from Him through sin. Lent allows us the time to figure out just what we are doing that KEEPS us from being close to God - and hopefully - asking His intercession to help us CHANGE and leave sin behind us. Let us pray that through the awesome grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation we will all know the freedom FREEDOM that comes from ADMITTING to and being FORGIVEN by God for our transgressions and sins.
