Dear Saints,
As you can see from the attached flyer, we’re about ready for Lent to begin. Making our final preparations in the runup to Ash Wednesday, however, I realize that for years such as these we need much more than a published program of events to get us going.
I’m reaching out, then, in hopes of connecting with you in a meaningful way before we begin our Lenten journey. Please be assured of my love and my prayers these weeks – we’re going to tackle the challenges of this season together, growing in sincere love for God, each other, and the world as we make our way.
Years ago, I saw a banner hanging outside a church that read, “Broken People Welcome Here.” It was shocking. Well, more like soul-stirring: In the very depths of my (broken) being, I cried out, “Yes!”
As we near the end of the global pandemic’s second year, it seems right to recall this memory. Although I want to give you the “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” speech, I can’t. It doesn’t seem to fit: We feel easily defeated these days; it often feels like we’re running on empty; and we’re crying our way through grief we can neither understand nor overcome.
So let me start by saying: It’s okay.
We read in the Psalms, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted,” so all the better for us if we are in touch with our poverty and pain.
Given the difficulties of our day, it’s worth reminding ourselves that Jesus knew what he was doing when he called us – you and me – to light up the world with God’s love. That didn’t mean, clearly, that life would always be sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. It meant that he’d be with us, here and now, as we make our way down the world’s winding and difficult paths, committed to the challenge of loving his world into life, strengthened and sustained by his Spirit at work in our weakness.
We’ve been called to follow Jesus in living lives of great (and costly) love, and we often feel ill- equipped for the task. Loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, and praying for those who mistreat us would be ridiculous in the extreme were it not for God giving us – breathing into us – his own life of Love to sustain our every effort.
That, my friends, is the challenge of Christianity, and it’s a challenge we take on with real dedication and fervor these days of Lent. It’s ours to harness this holy season to better receive and reflect the generous other-oriented love of God, to find strength in him to live the impossible-without-Jesus life to which we’ve been called.
The goal of a good Lent is to center our hearts on God (who is love) and to become like him by giving ourselves generously away. There is no better way to grow in love of God, neighbor, and self than through the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
That’s why I’m asking again this year that we try to use this grace-filled season to build a better baseline for mature Christian living. A big part of Lent’s power is that we make this 40-day trek together, so I’m asking you to commit to taking on – with all of us, your fellow parishioners – the following three life-changing and love-enabling disciplines:
Pray for 30 minutes a day
Fast every day except for Sundays and Solemnities
Give a true tithe (10% to the parish)
Don’t walk away just yet! Let’s explore these challenges in practical detail. I’ll present each discipline below with steps you might take to grow into it and helpful resources for additional support.
Prayer: pray for 30 minutes a day.
Our commitment to praying for 30 uninterrupted minutes a day reflects the wisdom of the saints. With almost universal testimony, the Church’s spiritual masters recommend half an hour of meditative silence a day as the source of Christian life.
If 30 minutes at a shot is too steep an ask, start this year with 15 minutes and add five a year. Don’t be discouraged – remember that making time for God is one of prayer’s most important accomplishments, and you learn to pray by praying!
If you would like a resource to help launch or develop your prayer life, check out Jacques Philippe’s Time for God.
Fasting: fast every day except for Sundays and Solemnities
Our commitment to eating only one main and two smaller meals every day in Lent helps us to check our desire for worldly pursuits and pleasures to focus more fully on God and meeting the demands of love.
If smaller meals with no snacking every day is too tough, start with a day or two a week (Friday and Wednesday are traditional fasting days) and add as we go, either through Lent or from one year to the next.
For a concise and accessible study on fasting, I recommend Charles M. Murphy’s The Spirituality of Fasting: rediscovering a Christian practice.
Almsgiving: give a true tithe (10% to the parish)
In a money-driven world, there is no better way to prioritize the purposes of God than by giving the first ten percent of what we make to our parish. Almsgiving actually implies giving beyond a tithe, but we’ll use this year to help get us to a tithing baseline.
(By definition, a tithe is a ten-percent offering to the parish. It is an act of worship, which means it is a way of centering our lives on God and his purposes. You have probably seen that OLMC’s revenues are higher than they have ever been – I am making this appeal not for the sake of our budget, but for the sake of your spiritual wellbeing.)
Although I’d encourage you to jump in the deep end with the tithe, we all have to start somewhere. If you can’t give ten percent now, try increasing your offering one or two percent a year until you hit a true tithe (and then we can go beyond it!).
For resources on tithing, I’d recommend Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle: unlocking the secrets of joyful giving, or his Managing God’s Money: a biblical guide.
That’s it, my friends. No matter where we find ourselves right now, we’re ready for the best Lent of our lives. God chose you for an incredible adventure, to light up the world with his love. I can’t wait to see where he takes us!
If you need anything at all, my friends, please be in touch. You are in my thoughts and prayers, and I remain eager to serve you and serve with you these days.
In the Peace of Christ,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ