Lent 2014 – Dear Parishioners...

Dear Parishioners,

               The Holy Season of Lent is a time to reflect on our discipleship. We are called to be more than just admirers of Jesus. As disciples of Jesus we are called to be wherever Jesus is staying.

               The reason a parish exists is to call people to be disciples, nurture them with the sacraments, and prepare them to go out into the world to proclaim the Kingdom of God the way Jesus did when he walked the earth. The Gospels make it clear as to how we are to conduct ourselves as disciples when we go forth into the world.

         The challenge of Lent is to respond to Christ’s invitation to follow him, and become his disciples. We are called to drink the chalice that he drinks, for the salvation of the world.     

         Lent is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In the words of St. Augustine, “Through humility and charity, fasting and almsgiving, and abstaining and forgiving. Avoiding evil and doing good, our prayer seeks peace and achieves it.” (Sermon 206)    

         The schedule of Lenten activities, printed materials for our personal reflection, and most of all the prayer of the church, will help us on our journey through the desert to Easter. I pray that Lent 2014 will be a special time of grace for our parish, and a time of personal conversion and change of heart. May we journey from ashes to Easter: from death to new life.

                                                    Father Gagné