Lent’s 40-day observance is a season of repentance. By prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we learn to reject the allure of power, pleasure, and money to live more totally for God and his purposes.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
40-Hours Devotional (not held this year)
Father Daniel’s Lenten Letter
Dear Saints,
The purpose of Lent, Pope Francis once said, is to stop pretending the world revolves around us, and to center our existence instead on God.
That’s not a risk-free adjustment. When God is relegated to the periphery of our lives, he generally can’t cause too much trouble. But there’s no telling what will happen when we make him the very center. His love is a wild force and we have no control over it. He might change anything. He might change everything. And yet, as anyone who has tried it both ways can attest, there’s good reason to make the shift from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. The former anesthetizes us into dead men walking; the latter enlivens us into saints seized by the energy of heaven itself.
The challenge is that, deadening as it is, the temptation to self-orbit remains both powerful and perpetual. So the Church invites us into three Lenten disciplines to help us develop a firm disposition of God-centeredness: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These are not boxes to be checked. No one gets a prize, either in this world or the next, for having observed the strictest Lent. They are instead opportunities to stop pretending, as Pope Francis would say. Every small but sincere act of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving brings us closer to our true center.
By definition, that’s an intensely personal and private undertaking. I’ve offered some time-tested guidelines in this letter to help us get started, but your best bet is to ask God to make his forty-day plan for your life known to you. You can be sure he has one for each of us; after all, he’s wanted to be our sun ever since he formed us. To be clear, that’s not a power trip on his part. His life is perfect - and perfectly satisfying - no matter which way we spin. He wants it for our sake and our sake alone.
Finally, even as Lent is a personal journey, it need not be isolated or isolating. Like all endurance challenges, there are points at which it really helps to have a friend or two. To that end, Our Lady of Mount Carmel offers a number of communal experiences. Whether you’re a daily communicant with rosary beads in every room or a so-called “lapsed” Catholic who can’t remember what the inside of a confessional looks like, you are welcome. Our parish is better for your participation, and we hope you’ll join us.
I pray this Lent will be a season of genuine refocus. Come Easter, may each of us be a testament to the unflagging vitality and unstoppable power of a truly God-centered life.
In Christ,
Father Daniel
Some Guidance on the Three Main Lenten Disciplines
PRAYER
Commit to prayer as a listening and following session more than anything else. That is, let God do the talking and leading.
Ideally, try to pray for at least 30 minutes a day. If that seems too daunting, start with 15 minutes and work your way up, or break it up into three 10 minute increments.
Consider adding a prayer you don’t normally pray, if not every day, at least three times a week (e.g., the rosary, the divine mercy chaplet, the liturgy of the hours).
Every day, work your way through ACTS (adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, supplication).
Every night, undertake a genuine examination of conscience.
Remember that prayer time is not something we do for God; it’s something he does for us. This kind of easy, open access to a ruler is unheard of - take advantage of his approachability.
FASTING
Be in close touch with God about what he’s inviting you to relinquish during this season. Give him space to get creative.
Don’t fast for any reason other than it will bring you closer to Jesus. Lent is not a competition or a weight-loss plan.
Accept the Church’s requirements of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstaining from meat on Fridays.
Remember that you can do hard things, and that temporary deprivation is often the shortest, surest way to healthy detachment from things that might otherwise control you.
ALMSGIVING
For 40 days, give a true tithe to the Church - that is, 10% of your income.
Spend some of your money on those who really need it through our Beyond the Tithe initiative: Nourish NJ*
Remember that the purpose of giving alms is not arm’s-length philanthropy, but rather to be clued in enough to the world around us that we hear and heed the cry of the poor.
*For more details on our Beyond the Tithe initiative as well as all of our communal events, please visit www.olmc.church or send me an email at pastor@olmcboonton.org.
Schedule of Activities
Click below for an expanded view. All events are streamed live where possible.
Ash Wednesday Schedule of Services
All of our Ash Wednesday activities will be in-person and livestreamed.
March 5th, 2025:
7:00am Mass
8:00am Mass (with the School)
12:00pm Liturgy of the Word and Distribution of Ashes
4:00pm Liturgy of the Word and Distribution of Ashes
7:00pm Mass
Holy Week Schedule of Services
All of our Holy Week services will be held in-person and livestreamed.
Holy Thursday (April 17th)
Morning Prayer: 8:00am
Confessions: 8:30-9:30am
Mass of the Lord’s Supper: 7:00pm
Altar of Repose*: after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper until 6:00am Friday morning
Good Friday (April 18th)
Morning Prayer: 8:00am
Confessions: 8:30-9:30am
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion: 3:00pm
Stations of the Cross: 6:00pm
Holy Saturday (April 19th)
Morning Prayer: 8:00am
Confessions: 8:30-9:30am
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*On Holy Thursday, we “watch and pray” at the Altar of Repose. Immediately following our 7:00pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper, join us in Gordon Hall to adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. We “keep watch” with Christ in a solemn way until midnight, and then in silence until 6:00am Friday morning.
In addition to watching at our Altar of Repose, we also invite the faithful to participate in a Holy Thursday devotion called The Seven Churches Visitation. The pilgrimage is accomplished by visiting the Altar of Repose at seven different Catholic Churches before midnight on Holy Thursday.
Stations of the Cross
Every Friday in Lent (March 7th to April 18th) we pray the Stations of the Cross together in the church. Join us at 6:00pm (also streamed live).
Booklets to pray the Stations of the Cross are available at the church and can be found here.
Mass, Confession, and Adoration
During Lent, our regular schedule of Masses, Confession Times, and Adoration continues.
OLMC also takes part in the Diocese of Paterson’s Welcome Home to Healing initiative. On the Mondays of Lent - from March 10th to April 14th - every church in the diocese is open for confessions from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.
Easter Masses
All of our Masses are streamed live when possible.
Saturday, April 19th
8:00pm Easter Vigil (a two-hour Mass)
Sunday, April 20th
7:30am, 9:00am, and 11:00am
OLMC Livestream
Give Now
Our Lady of Mount Carmel runs on your generosity. Thank you for continuing to support our mission to light up the world with God’s love!
For help with proportional giving, and making progress towards the tithe, check out www.olmc.church/give.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel manages automated giving with DonorBox, an industry leader that harnesses the security, reliability, and convenience of PayPal, Apple Pay, and Stripe.
We also accept contributions the old-fashioned way. Please contact us with any questions.
Lent 2025: Nourish.NJ
Every Lent we are encouraged to go beyond the tithe in order to meet the needs of the world.
Our beyond-the-tithe challenge for this Lent is Nourish.NJ, a well-known local charity that creates lasting solutions to the problems of hunger, homelessness and poverty. Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 for this great work.
Our beyond-the-tithe campaign is a great opportunity for us to give sacrificially this Lent.
OLMC Parish Fish Fry
Our Fish Fry is back! Order your dinner today.
Catered once again by the exquisite Tastefully British, this year’s event will take place on Friday, March 21st from 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the school gym. The $15 per dinner price is an adult portion of fish, chips, and coleslaw. Eat-in and take-home orders are available.
All orders must be placed in advance. The closing date for all orders is March 12th - no exceptions!