Pastoral Message – February 18, 2024
Hey y’all,
I’m writing this little fervorino (that’s a Churchy Italian word that means a quick exhortation, or a pep talk) after a long day. Ash Wednesday to be exact. It has been a good day, and from all I can tell, it’s been a good start to this penitential season of Lent.
We had a lot of people come to one of our four Masses. We sent ministers with blessed ashes out to homes, care facilities and hospitals and we had literally hundreds of people receive ashes throughout the day in our parking lot. (We have “parking lot prayer” every Wednesday afternoon. Sometimes on a regular Wednesday nobody shows up. We just added ashes today and crowds came!)
And while lots of folks who aren’t necessarily our “usual suspects” showed up, I was encouraged by the mixture of devotion, reverence, sincerity, and gratitude I saw in folks. As I traced the cross on folks’ foreheads with the phrase “Repent, and believe the Gospel”, the penitents, now marked with the humility of ashes,
replied with an honest, or heartfelt, or contrite “Amen”. That is a good start to Lent. And it also indicated to me that folks have a desire to more fully participate in the potential blessings of Lent. And the truth of being with God, in Christ Jesus.
See, I think that in the midst of our Lenten doings, disciplines and deprivations (giving ups, that is) we forget that God is blessing us! And while we can play transactional mind-games (if I give up two candy bars, God is going to bless me with two candy bars worth of grace), God never plays games with us. Grace and Mercy, hope and love are always the blessings we receive. But the best blessing is being with God, in union with God, living with God, experiencing God.
So I hope that if you marked the beginning of Lent with ashes, you had a good and prayerful experience from Wednesday until now. And that the cross that you bore on your forehead for a few hours would continue to extend as a kind of Christian resolve, blooming over the next 40 days. That’s the hard part isn’t it?!? Persevering and remaining consistent in devotion, reverence, sincerity and gratitude.
So keep up your good work. Keep your hearts and minds focused on God and divine things. Don’t become discouraged if you fall off the Lenten wagon. Finally, just repent, and believe the Gospel. For “the Kingdom of God is at hand”.
Fr. Reynold
