Lent is a time when followers of Christ spend 40 days in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in preparation for Holy Week and Easter.
When I was growing up, the emphasis was on “giving up” things we liked — from candy to favorite television shows. Penance and self-sacrifice are still important aspects of the Lenten season, but they may take on different forms.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
In the first place, let me thank you most sincerely for your remembrance in prayer during the days of my vacation. They were special days for me of friendship, especially friendship with the Lord, and also some needed rest and recreation. The time was most enjoyable and life-giving, I’m sure in large part due to your prayers. And, of course, I remembered all of you every blessed day.
Dear friends,
As we come to the midpoint of Lent, it is a good time for us to remember to look ahead and to mark down in our calendars the many celebrations and commemorations of Holy Week, and especially the great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night — the most important liturgy of the Church year.
We continue to pray for those women and men, and boys and girls, who will enter our Church at Easter, that they might continue to have a grace-filled time of preparation.
Let us all look forward to the Easter Vigil, that we might celebrate with joy, and faith, and a good deal of enthusiasm!
It is a temptation for us, during Lent and even otherwise, to fall short in that enthusiasm which should be ours as Catholics. There is a temptation to get caught up in the comings and goings of our everyday lives, and to get caught up in the politics of our day and age and to forget that which is really most important, that is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead.
Every year, millions of Catholics participate in Operation Rice Bowl (ORB), Catholic Relief Services’ annual Lenten program that starts Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25.
The following are Lenten regulations to be practiced by all Catholics:
