A Lenten Message from Father Tom

I truly believe that life is a series of opportunities, some of which, we take advantage of, while others we pass by.  Lent 2018 at St. Catharine offers a series of those opportunities.  There are things we are doing together.  The centerpiece is our “Parish Mission,” our first in a number of years.  It will begin at all the weekend Masses March 10/11 and continue Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:30, try to save those dates so we can experience the mission as a parish.
For 4 consecutive Thursdays I will be doing a series of talks entitle, “Faith 201.”  There is a flyer in the bulletin that lists the themes.  The key to the title is Faith, not theology, as we will explore what and how we believe and thus live our faith.  Also it is not a 101 course but something that goes a little deeper, challenges us to think and talk about our faith as believing adults, whereas most of our faith was learned as teens or even earlier.  These will begin March 1st and run through the 22nd also in Community Hall at 7:30 P.M.
There are things we can do personally, like, the Lenten reflection books where we spend a little alone time with the thought or meditation of the day.  If you want to go a little deeper, I would suggest a book by a parishioner, Tom Garry, entitled, Through Lent with John’s People.  It goes into a little more depth connecting John’s Gospel and pop-culture, it is a good read.  Households are encouraged to partake in Operation Rice Bowl where one meal a week is simplified to whatever you like and the amount of money saved compared to a typical meal is put into a paper rice-bowl with the monies at the end of Lent going to the Catholic Relief Services.
Sometimes it’s about doing your own thing regarding the three staples of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  We will put some ideas along the way including a weekly theme in terms of issues we want to pray for as well as take some action.  There will be a Men’s Cornerstone on March 2nd and 3rd.  The archdiocese runs a day of prayer for women and another for men.  Cardinal Tobin will end each of the days with Mass.  The day for women is on March 3rd and the men on the 10th, both will take place at Seton Hall.  There is still more to come including honoring our deacons in this year of the deacon.
Of course you can’t do them all but try to focus on one or two.  Remember opportunity is knocking and the only question that remains, is, will you answer?