Dear Saints,

Do you find yourself starving by 9am on Ash Wednesday, even if you normally don’t even eat breakfast till then? Many people are familiar with this phenomenon, and some have suggested it’s a vestige of primitive survival instincts: our body craves what our mind believes or knows to be scarce. So it’s perfectly natural; the challenge is that it’s only natural.

Left to innate impulses, we’d constantly be on the hunt to satisfy our every desire. Lent, then, is an opportunity to order our lives according to something other than that neverending chase. It’s a chance to lift our minds and hearts to something higher.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that relying on purely material matters is like building with wood, while relying on spiritual and divine matters is like building with gold. There’s nothing wrong with wood. God made wood and he found it very good. But wood decays, while gold endures.

We have four weeks left to experience a Lent centered on higher things. Let’s commit ourselves to the discipline it requires so we can enjoy the freedom it offers. If we do, it won’t be long before we’re celebrating something even more precious than gold.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ

PS Our beyond-the-tithe challenge for this Lent is Several Sources, a well-known local charity that saves babies’ lives and shelters their young mothers. Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 for this great work.