LENT: A SPRINGTIME FOR THE SOUL
     Last Wednesday, as our foreheads were signed with blessed ashes, we entered into the holy season of Lent. Since the Old Testament, ashes have always stood for penance and mourning; it signifies the “bowing of the conscience” and “mourning for our sins”, which are central to the Lenten season. The three pillars of Lent—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving —are not ends in themselves, but should ultimately bring us into conversion and a deeper realization of our sublime dignity as sons and daughters of God. This echoes what we heard last Wednesday in the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Joel, “Rend your hearts, not your garments.”
     As a parish community, there are a number of opportunities that will help us enter more fully into the spirit of the Lent. I would like to encourage everyone to join the Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent. We will begin with the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 6:30pm, reminding us of the incredible love of the God in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is Christ’s “unbloody” sacrifice on the Cross. While the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, we will begin the Stations of the Cross at 7pm and end it with the Benediction. This is our deliberate and conscious act, as a faith community, to intensify our prayer life as called by the season. Spending time at the Adoration Chapel and attending daily Mass during Lent would surely deepen our Lenten consciousness.
     Aside from the Stations of the Cross, we also have another wonderful Lenten tradition here at St. Cecilia’s that brings a heightened consciousness to one of the pillars of Lent (almsgiving).  Every year, the parish does a Lenten collection that benefits the poor and the marginalized through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Social Concerns Ministry and our new partner parish (St. Alexander’s in Cornelius). For the past few years, we had supported Christ the King Parish in Shiprock, New Mexico. Probably because of the turnover of different pastors there, we have not heard anything from them so the Partner
Parish Committee decided to choose another partner parish in the local area while waiting for word from Shiprock.  Almsgiving is a deliberate effort to move the focus from the self to one’s neighbor. It also reminds us that, though we have our own unique needs, we are also cognizant of the plight of other people.
     The gospel in the first Sunday of Lent always talks about the temptation of Jesus in the desert. The temptations that Christ overcame were the same ones that we constantly wrestle with as well—excessive desire for material things, pride, and power.  These are the three main things that breed other sins, the weeds that hinder the full blossoming of the seeds of God’s word in the ground, who is us. It’s interesting that the word Lent comes from the Old English word, “lencten,” which means springtime. Lent, to truly be springtime for our souls, is a time to weed out or to remove the unnecessary things that we find in the “garden of life” so that God’s splendor and majesty bloom. Springtime for our souls can only take place if we muster the courage to say “no” to the temptations that put the self over God, so that in the words of the Opening Prayer/Collect today, “we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.”   – Fr. Cary