Ash Wednesday marked the most I had seen people in church since the lockdown and since the beginning of our reopening efforts.
Tag: ash
Saving souls on the installment plan
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| Deacon Jack Fernan |
As we approach Ash Wednesday and Lent, we are invited to look for our own penitential practices and the way for us to accomplish what God destined for our spiritual journey.
The most simple way, of course, is for us to first of all obey the 10 Commandments and to love God and our neighbor as we love ourself, and then to grow up spiritually.
Many years of haphazard spiritual practices have taught me to stop dilly-dallying around. If you too have not been very diligent about helping others grow spiritually, maybe we can get serious about improving our spiritual practices day by day and week by week.
‘Do It for Jesus: Pray, Give, Sacrifice!’
Students and staff at St. John the Baptist (SJB) School in Jefferson initiated their Lenten journey together on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Faith is alive during Lent on UW-Madison campus
MADISON — College students are known for “pulling an all-nighter” to stay up through the night writing a paper or studying for an exam.
For Audrey Hilts, a sophomore at UW-Madison and student leader at St. Paul Catholic Center, her first all-nighter last year was a little different.
“The night before Ash Wednesday, St. Paul’s offered all-night perpetual Eucharistic Adoration — praying with the Blessed Sacrament in the middle of the night was such a powerful way to begin Lent!”
Lent calls us to deeper conversion
In the Peanuts comic strip, each fall Lucy held the football for Charlie Brown to kick. At the last second, Lucy picked up the ball and Charlie Brown missed it and fell flat on his face.
After years of being tricked, Charlie refused to kick the football because he no longer trusted Lucy. She broke down, shed tears, and confessed, “I have sinned. I want to change. Won’t you give me another chance, please!” Charlie Brown trusted her again.
Lent calls us to grow in our Easter faith
When Matt Hasselbeck, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, was a Boston College junior, he volunteered to spend eight days in the missions of Jamaica during spring break.
The people’s poverty shocked him. But their faith, especially the faith of George McVee, a leper, inspired him.
George, a horribly disfigured leper, had no money, no nose, no feet or hands. Yet he daily thanked God for his blessings.