Lent 2025 - Ash Wednesday

03-02-2025Letter from the PastorFr. Don Kline, V.F.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Lenten Season begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025. On Ash Wednesday, St. Bernadette parish will offer a 6:30am Mass, 8:30am Mass, a 12:00pm Liturgy of the Word and 5:00pm Mass. Everyone who comes to Mass, or the noonday Liturgy of the Word will receive ashes on their foreheads. The ashes are reminders that each one of us came from dust and will return to dust one day. The ashes on our foreheads are in the shape of a cross. Wearing this sign on our foreheads proclaims to others "I live for Christ".

For those who would like to grow in their relationship with Our Lord, Lent is a time to offer personal sacrifices by giving something up like a favorite food, doing greater works of charity, and praying more intently. “Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God.” (Joel 2:12)

The 40 days of Lent are how Catholics prepare for Easter. We begin the period of grace with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads and the words expressed in the Liturgy which is one of two formulas: "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel" or "Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.” Through repentance and our faithfulness to the Gospel, conversion and spiritual growth strengthens our relationship with Our Lord.

During Lent, the Church asks us to consider fasting, almsgiving and prayers. The regulations on Lenten Fasting and Abstinence are:

Fasting: On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: Those who are 18 years of age but not yet 60 are allowed only one full meal on those two days. Two smaller meals are allowed as needed, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted.

Abstinence From Meat: Those who are 14 years of age or older are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and All Fridays of Lent.

Lent is set apart as a season that gives us 40 days to focus on our prayer. This time of prayer is meant to bring us closer to Christ in ways that will change our hearts and move us closer to Christ.

Fasting is also an important part of Lent. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, our personal disciplines united with personal sacrifices like abstaining from meat on Fridays, lessening or even giving up screen time on the computer, television, and phones. Fasting is a form of penance, which helps us turn away from sin and toward Christ. Lent doesn’t have to always be about giving something up. These 40 days can be about doing something positive. “I’m going to give more time, talent, and treasure to those who are in need. I’m going to exercise more. I’m going to pray more. I’m going to be nicer to my family, friends and coworkers. I am going to be quicker to forgive and slower to get angry.”

The Lenten discipline is more than self-control – Lent includes fostering a desire to look at aspects of yourself that are less than Christ-like and asking Our Lord to help us remove those parts of us that need to die. The suffering and death of Christ are foremost on our minds during Lent, and we join in these mysteries by suffering, dying with Christ and being resurrected in a purified form… seeking a new life in and with Christ.

I have had “bad” or “unsuccessful” Lenten observances in the past. I think I failed most often because I was too ambitious or unrealistic in my efforts to change. Now, I just try to better than last year. Sometimes I need to adjust my goals to be more realistic. I learned to not cram all my fasting, almsgiving, and prayer into one Lent. That’s a recipe for failure. We spend our entire lives growing closer to God and that means we are all a work in progress.

I have found that even when I have set simple Lenten goals, I still had trouble keeping them. For example, when I fast, I know that I am just one meal away from hunger, not starving to death but in my mind I can be so dramatic. In a strange, yet powerful way, Lent can reveal our weaknesses. Finding out our weaknesses is not pleasant but recognizing how helpless we are makes us seek God’s help with renewed urgency and sincerity.

When you fall, not if you fall, it can be very tempting to become angry, frustrated and have the desire to give up. I have asked myself, “Why am I am so weak?” In those moments of failure, I believe that Our Lord is inviting us to grow in patience and trust in His Mercy and love for us – especially in those moments of weakness.

Understanding that we all have moments of weakness and suffering enables us to be renewed in our compassion for those who also suffer moments of weakness and suffering. The third part of the Lenten formula is almsgiving. It’s about more than throwing a few extra dollars in the collection plate; it’s about stretching beyond our comfort zones and helping others in need experience God’s unconditional love.

As we give ourselves, particularly when we are suffering, it can bring us closer to loving like Christ, who suffered and poured himself out unconditionally on the cross for all of us. Lent is a journey through the desert to the foot of the cross on Good Friday. May our Lenten sacrifices enable us to grow in our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that we may love Christ more intimately and love like Christ more generously.

God Bless,

Fr. Don Kline