 Fr.
Tom's Tomes February 14, 2010
Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you. Valentine’s day is an opportunity to do something special for those who you love. Even though this is a civil celebration it is an opportunity for us to add a Christian twist to the day by bringing the love of God to the people in our lives. This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent. Lent is a penitential season preparing our souls for Easter. As we begin this season of Lent it is a time for all to prepare for Easter. Ash Wednesday Masses are at 8:15 am and 7:00 pm. This is the day of the Church’s Liturgical Year when we receive ashes to remind us we are entering a season of prayer, fasting and alms giving. Sackcloth and ashes are Old Testament symbols visualizing a person taking part in penitential actions in their lives. The Catholic Church offers many opportunities for us to follow to draw our attention to the need we have of God in our lives. The Catholic Church first of all asks people to make Ash Wednesday and Good Friday days of Fast and Abstinence. What does this mean? Fasting means we do not eat anything between the meals of the day. Fasting means we eat only one full meal during the day and the other two meals food should equal one other normal meal we eat during the day. Abstaining means we do not eat meat or meat products on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent. We give up all meat on these days. It could be bacon, pork sausage, hamburgers, chicken, and most fast food products. We live in such a busy world that it makes us stop and think about what we are eating. Abstaining from eating meat also joins us in a common penitential act that all Catholics should be doing. The readings for Ash Wednesday call to mind the need we have for God in our lives. Prayer joins us in union with God in heaven. Without our dependence upon God we would not be able to really use the season of Lent as a time for spiritual growth in our lives. By starting with prayer we ask God for the help we need in our lives to do the best in turning away from sin and to focus upon following God’s will in our lives. The second focus of the gospel is fasting. Fasting is giving up something or things in our lives and redirecting our energy in following God’s will. Fasting could be giving up something we like to have. It could be chocolate, beer, a favorite television show, desserts, or something else. If we are aware of the need to move away from sin in our lives it could be fasting from using God’s name in vain, taking people for granted, use of pornography, stealing or whatever the sin might be. Fasting is to make us stronger in God’s love. Fasting from things we like is to give it up so that God may work in our lives. Fasting from a particular sin is really changing our behavior so we make ourselves more like Christ. The third focus is alms giving. What is this? It is our becoming more aware of the needs of people around us and making them more important in our lives. As people of God we do have a responsibility to care for all of God’s people. Alms giving is our responsibility to see the needs of God’s suffering people and to respond. As Americans we believe we are very negatively impacted by the down turn in the economy but there are many people in our city, state, country and the world who struggle daily for food, shelter, water, medicine and the basics of living. By giving to an organization who assists those in need we can share in the responsibility God gave us to care for others. On the First Sunday of Lent we will be taking up a special collection at Mass called the BEAF collection. This collection is the Bishop’s Emergency Assistance Fund taken up in our diocese to support the needy of our Diocese. Annually, St. Columban receives approximately $1,800 from this collection to help those in need in our community through rent and medicine assistance and a very little to travelers needing money to complete their destination. This collection is very important in our diocese to help those who are struggling. Another opportunity is Project Rice Bowl. On the tables in Church we have the card board bowls you can take home and when you give up a desert you can put the money which you would have spent making it or buying it and place it in the Rice Bowl. 25% of the money stays in the Diocese, and 25% stays in the United States and 50% goes to feed hungry people around the world. This is another way to become aware of God’s people in need. God bless you this week. |