We enter once again into this most holy season of Lent. This season lasts 40 days beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Holy Thursday evening, which is the beginning of the Sacred Triduum leading us into Easter. Through the solemn forty days of Lent, the Church unites herself to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
Here, at Saint Patrick, we observe this holy season in a variety of ways. On Ash Wednesday, we gathered for a Eucharistic Liturgy and received ashes, the mark of our own mortality. Fridays during Lent will be special days of prayer for our community and will devote itself to the three pillars the Lenten season: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Mass will be celebrated at 7:10AM every Friday of Lent.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle writes the following about the beginning of Lent: “The purpose of the Church in putting ashes on your head is to make you realize that you should be filled with a true spirit of penance. This sacred ceremony is a remnant of the Church’s ancient discipline that obliged public penitents at the start of their penance to receive ashes on their heads by the ministers of the holy altars in full view of the faithful. You should resolve to unite yourself by a suitable disposition of heart. This is how we should begin and end this holy season of forty days.”
He continues: “We will die and we will die only once. We will die well and with God only insofar as we have lived in the practice of penance. Do we wish to die a holy death? Let us live as true penitents.”
The season of Lent beckons all of us, not only in the Lasallian Community, but also in the universal Church, to come back to the Lord with all our hearts. May this season of grace be one of promising spiritual opportunity. May it allow us to look into our own lives and return to God.
A Happy, Holy Lent to all our students and families.
Here, at Saint Patrick, we observe this holy season in a variety of ways. On Ash Wednesday, we gathered for a Eucharistic Liturgy and received ashes, the mark of our own mortality. Fridays during Lent will be special days of prayer for our community and will devote itself to the three pillars the Lenten season: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Mass will be celebrated at 7:10AM every Friday of Lent.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle writes the following about the beginning of Lent: “The purpose of the Church in putting ashes on your head is to make you realize that you should be filled with a true spirit of penance. This sacred ceremony is a remnant of the Church’s ancient discipline that obliged public penitents at the start of their penance to receive ashes on their heads by the ministers of the holy altars in full view of the faithful. You should resolve to unite yourself by a suitable disposition of heart. This is how we should begin and end this holy season of forty days.”
He continues: “We will die and we will die only once. We will die well and with God only insofar as we have lived in the practice of penance. Do we wish to die a holy death? Let us live as true penitents.”
The season of Lent beckons all of us, not only in the Lasallian Community, but also in the universal Church, to come back to the Lord with all our hearts. May this season of grace be one of promising spiritual opportunity. May it allow us to look into our own lives and return to God.
A Happy, Holy Lent to all our students and families.
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