Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ash Wednesday
















Happy Ash Wednesday! Today we enter into the penitential season of Lent and allow ourselves to be particularly reflective. Last night I had the priviledge of offering Mass with the Catholic Students of St. Paul's Newman Center during their REVIVE peer ministry session. Each week, on Tuesday evenings, Catholic students attending the University of Wyoming, the Laramie campus of Laramie County Community College, or WYO Tech have the opportunity to gather together to celebrate mass, and then enter into reflection about the teachings of the Church, books of the Bible, and to help one another to grow in their faith. These meetings are all student led. I've been very impressed by the desire I see in these young men and women for holiness and authenic community. I am inspired by the degree to which they are willing to go to learn about our faith and to live their faith in Jesus Christ. In addition to REVIVE they participate in Night Prayer usually at 9 p.m. every night and also have mass on campus Thursdays at 12:20. This semester they've chosen to study the book of Romans. In their actions and their desire to discover God's will for them I experienced a very good springboard for the season of Lent.










The readings for Ash Wednesday call us to honesty before the Lord. We're invited to "repent", to reassess our relationship with God and our living of the faith as members of the Church. For areas of sinfulness and selfishness we discern and choose a pattern of penance: prayer, service, and fasting that help us to more freely live the grace that God gives us. Isaiah the prophet proclaimed, "Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own." This is the call to holiness which is our vocation. It is the bedrock from whence we can discover which of the Sacraments at the Service of Communion: marriage, Holy Orders, religious life, or the single life lived for the Kingdom of God, to which God is calling us.










May this be truly a season of grace for all of us and make us ready to live Easter joy with greater integrity, an integrity which others might see and want to enter into! Know of my prayers for you during this holy season.