Ash Wednesday

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In exactly a week from now we'll be in Lent. I invite you to post reccomendations, reflections, advice and whatever you consider useful for the Catholics on this forum to live Lent in a truly christian spirit. Let's be the prodigal sons returning to the house of our Loving Father. What we renounce in fasting and abstinence let it be given to the poor and hungry, as the first chrisitans used to do.

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), March 01, 2000

Answers

Thank you, Enrique, for your invitation.

I will just start with two thoughts:

1. Although it is traditional to "give up" something good for Lent, the Church has placed an increasing emphasis, since Vatican II, on another penitential act. These notes from "Women for Faith and Family" can help us: "Our Lenten spiritual preparations should not be confined to 'giving up' things; we should 'take on' things -- acts of charity and extra prayers, for example. Especially family prayers. If your family has not already established some form of family prayer, Lent is a good time to begin. We are prepared to do something special during this season anyway. If you have not established the habit of praying together as a family (and in our busy times it is difficult), do set aside some time this Lent to do it. Fathers and mothers can plan together what form this will take -- whether as simple as saying the Angelus every night at dinner, or as elaborate as saying the Evening Prayer from the Divine Office (also known as the Liturgy of the Hours) together." The Church encourages the laity to unite themselves to the priests and religious around the world by praying Morning and Evening Prayer from this official "Prayer of the Church," second only to the Mass as a part of our liturgical rites.

2. Here is the URL of an Internet site where everyone can find a very fine explanation, in question-and-answer form, of "What is Lent? What do we do during it? Why do we do what we do? Etc." It was written by a very brilliant convert to the Catholic faith, James Akin.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/LENT.TXT

May God bless us all daily with a longing for ever deeper conversion of our lives.


-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 02, 2000.

About family prayers, I know that there are indulgences associated with praying the Rosary in family, though I cannot remember the details.

Peace. Atila

-- Atila (me@somewhere.com), March 03, 2000.


Friends,
Here are a few reflections from Monsignor Peter Esterka:

"Lent is a time for Christians to identify with the suffering and death of Jesus in order to be able to identify with rising with Him at Easter. The sacrifices that we make are meant to be ways of entering, experientially, not just intellectually, into the meaning of the death and resurrection."
"The symbolic expression of our having died with Christ comes in Baptism. Each Lent we have an opportunity for a more literal expression of it in everyday life, knowing that all the members of Christ's body should be of the same mind." JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 05, 2000.

What length of time do we have in order to fulfill our obligation of Lenten confession and Easter Communion?

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), March 07, 2000.


Hello, Enrique. Thanks for the question.

Although it is traditional in some places to refer to an obligatory Lenten confession, there really is no such obligation. Canon 989 of the new (1983) Code of Canon Law states: "After having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious [i.e., mortal] sins at least once a year."
Thus, although frequent (even "devotional") confession is recommended, sacramental confession is technically not ever required unless a person commits a mortal sin.

The Catechism reminds us that we must receive Holy Communion at least once a year. We must receive during the Easter Season. This lasts from the Feast of the Resurrection through Trinity Sunday (a week after Pentecost).

God bless you.
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 07, 2000.


Thank you, again, John. My parents were devout Catholics and they brought up my brothers and me in the practice of going to confession in Lent. We used to recieve Communion every Sunday, but special emphasis os put on Easter Communion. That's why I consider important to clarify doubts....

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), March 08, 2000.


Here is another reflection on Lent from Monsignor Peter Esterka:

"Daily participation in the Eucharist, the recitation of the Rosary, and fasting can still be effective ways of showing one's willingness to die with Christ. But we are challenged to include new approaches as well in our practice of Christian virtues. We need to give more of ourselves to others than we expect back from them. We need to forgive each other and to love more completely than we do."

I heard someone suggest yesterday that we make a special effort to stop "using" some seemingly unimportant people in our lives as though they were "tools," rather than persons. We can surprise people like telephone operators, postal carriers, restaurant waiters, cleaning people (janitors, etc.) by paying them personal compliments, tipping very generously, etc..

God bless you. JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 08, 2000.

Words to keep in mind during Lent ...
From the prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord: Share your bread with the hungry. shelter the oppressed and the homeless. Clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry for help, and He will say, "Here I am."

Thus says the Lord: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech ... if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted ... then the light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 10, 2000.

Ash Wednesday marks the starts of the Lent. Lenten season means the forthy days of Jesus Christ's passion and suffering. Remember the 40 day fasting of Jesus where He was summon by the devil? As we recieve ash, we try reflect as the scriptures says "You are from dust and onto dust you shall return. As an altar sever, Lent (according to the scripture) is a time for reflection. You have ask what to do during Lent! Didn't attend the holy mass that ash wednesday? Try to recall to gospel! During Lent, We are taught to do the following: (1) Almsgiving, (2) Prayer , and (3) Fasting! Hope that you've been satisfied for answers. Just try to reach me at my Email Address at anytime! Hey, Im a Filipino!

-- Mabini Requina (bhabes_172001@yahoo.com), March 31, 2002.

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