February 21, 2010: From The Desk of The Pastor

Dear Parishioners of OLM & OLS,

It has begun folks! Lent is here! Ready or not! Put on your seat belts for here we go! It is time one again to enter into our Annual Spiritual Retreat. The tools are PRAYER, FASTING, AND ALMSGIVING.

Parish Mission: For the past several weeks, I have printed the information of our upcoming Parish Mission: MARCH 8, 9, and 10. If you have not already reserved these days, PLEASE DO SO NOW! The presenter, Father Ricky Manalo is great. The need for your spiritual renewal is greater. PLEASE plan on taking advantage of this opportunity to tune up your spiritual self. No one can do it for you. Only you can engage your spiritual self.

Matthew 25: For almost ten years now, we have used the Scripture Text found in the 25th Chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. Please check below to see the suggestions assisting you in your Almsgiving.

JOURNEY OF THE CROSS [Good Friday Outdoor Stations of the Cross beginning at 10am at the Church]. Each year we choose a different quadrant of our Parish to host this Good Friday Event. This year the parameters are Route 440 and the Boulevard between College Drive and Danforth Avenue. If interested in hosting one of the Stations, please see Father Marty.

Today is also WORLD MARRIAGE SUNDAY. Congratulations to all who work so hard at living the Sacrament of Marriage. Use the opportunity of this day to recommit yourselves to each other. Remember to verbalize your love for each other some time today!

My love and prayers,

Father Jack

“A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.” These words from Psalm 51 (51:12), which we pray on Ash Wednesday, remind us that Lent is a season that signals a change of heart. We who dare to celebrate Lent do more than pass from winter into spring. We pass from death into life. We learn to risk dying in order to be reborn. We remember that we are dust, true, and we take upon ourselves the ashes—the death—of Lent. At the same time, we also recall that we are a people alive because of a death—because of a death and resurrection—in which we share because of our baptism. And so, during Lent we do what baptized people do. We spend the forty days preparing those to be baptized at Easter, and we take time to prepare ourselves to renew our own baptismal conversion.

Lent is a journey of conversion, a passage of a people who have been forever marked by the story’s end—by Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. We undertake the Lenten journey, as did ancient pilgrims before us, in the company of others. We mark the steps of our journey by gathering together each week to join our stories to the life-changing story of Jesus. Meeting the Good News of Jesus is always a turning point in our lives and stories. Encountering the story of Jesus who is love—love clear through—places a decision before us: will we respond in love to Jesus who is love or not? If we say yes and yield to the power of love, that’s conversion. Then Jesus’ story becomes ours, and our story becomes a love story, too. Then we can take our place at the promised feast of Easter, and—through word and deed—invite all we meet and touch to do the same.

The liturgies of Lent remind us that our entire existence is animated by the life, death, and resurrection (the paschal mystery) of the Lord. This animation sparks us to move beyond words to deeds that will identify us with him. That is why we take upon ourselves the Lenten discipline (prayer, fasting, almsgiving): not to punish ourselves, not even to recognize personal failure, but to quicken ourselves to hear Christ’s voice more clearly in the voices of the poor, the hungry, the lonely, the oppressed. Having heard those voices, we can turn to serve others. Then, come Easter, we all can rejoice heart and soul in that new day and in the new life it brings.