Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we prepare to enter into Lent, we turn our attention to Jesus’ time fasting in the desert. The Catechism teaches us:

“Jesus’ victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father” (CCC #539).

“This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: ‘For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning’ (Heb 4:15). By the solemn forty days of Lent, the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert” (CCC #540).

As the season of penance, Lent is our annual participation in Jesus’ penitential forty days in the desert, characterized by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In prayer, we ask our Lord to purify our hearts of our sinfulness that we might be more faithful to His holy will for each of us; we also express deep gratitude for the gift of His Passion, even if our words fall well short of the thanks we owe Him. Fasting offered in love has great spiritual power. Lent is a time to be intentional about it and to teach us yet again of its centrality in the pilgrimage of faith we are all on, with the hope that we continue beyond Easter Sunday, in one way or another.  Almsgiving challenges us to properly order our material possessions such that we can more easily and freely give God our first fruits.

Indeed, St. John Paul II taught that Lent is a time to re-order ourselves and our relationships, the one with God being preeminent above all else (cf. Message of His Holiness John Paul II for Lent 1981). Below you will find many opportunities at the parish to aid you in doing so.

Let us enter into the desert together, firm in faith that these forty days will re-shape and re-order our hearts and our minds so that we might joyfully and gratefully celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday as the holy disciples He calls us to be.

In Jesus through Mary, Fr. Casey