To let the full measure of God’s tremendous gift penetrate and permeate our hearts and minds and souls, we approach the threshold of another LENT!  Ash Wednesday is just three days away.  This reminder may send a chill into our hearts if we think of Lent only in terms of cold, dry ashes, penance, fasting, and giving up some of our favorite food and fun.  Our focus should be not on what we give up but on what we have been given ~ God’s love as personified in Jesus Christ.  God loved the world so much that he gave us his only Son that all who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.

As a gentle reminder... Daily Mass (M, T, W, & T) begins at 8:15 a.m.; Friday’s Mass begins at 9:00 a.m. with the school children present.  On each Friday evening beginning at 7:00 p.m. the Stations of the Cross will be prayed.  There is a parish Reconciliation Service scheduled for Tuesday, March 13th beginning at 7:00 p.m.  We will also publish our neighboring parish’s times for Reconciliation services.  As Lent proceeds, more opportunities for renewal will be available.  Keep your eyes on the bulletin for details.
 

What will Lent mean to you?  That’s really the bottom line when you come right down to it, isn’t it?  What will Lent mean to you?  No matter what you’ve heard about the meaning of Lent as a time to better your life, you are the only person who can do that.  Only you know what has to be done.  Where do you stand with God… with your family, your friends, your neighbors, those with whom you work?  Do you pray often?  Rarely?  Never?  Is there need in your life for reconciliation with God, with others?  Are sacrifices for the poor, service to those you can help, realities in your life?  Is religion alive and well in your daily life?
 

Lent is the time to face up to those difficult, disturbing questions.  They will not go away.  We may succeed in putting them aside, in pretending they’re unimportant.  We all know better.  What LENT means to you will go a long way toward putting both these questions and their answers into better perspective in your life.
 

Thanks to the generous donation of a member of our parish, we have “little black books” this year to help us get through Lent in a little bit more meaningful way.  Please use this book daily as your own personal reflection for the day.  Two pages is all!  Two or three minutes a day for the Lord and you to be together! 
 

Lent ~ prayer, fasting and almsgiving ~ the three pillars of the season.  How will you put God’s will to work in your life?