Msgr. Mike's Blog | Are You Ready for Spring?

This winter certainly has not been the worst one we have endured here in New England, but it sure is hanging on with these smaller storms.   Even without any blizzards, however, when the month of March arrives we all seem to be more than ready for Spring. The Red Sox spring training camp is well underway in Florida, and this week on Ash Wednesday we will begin our spiritual “spring training camp” as Christian disciples.  The 40 days of Lent each year give us all the opportunity to get back into spiritual shape.

The word  Lent comes from an old English word "lenten" which means springtime.  Lent is that season that serves as a bridge which leads us from winter into spring. Lent brings us from all that is cold and dead and barren into a season which is emerging with new life.  We wait for the warmer weather to come as a sign that we are leaving winter and moving into a new spring. This will be even more evident this coming weekend when our clocks “spring forward” one hour.
 
As the season of Lent begins we might also look within to see if there is something new emerging in our inner lives.  Whatever we decide to “give up” or “do” during Lent, it is our hope that something good comes of it.  Through our acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, what we are ultimately seeking to do is to become more like Jesus.  It is a challenge to live in our world like Jesus.  We all know that.  Even though we may fall down and fail, we never give up.  We do not go through these 40 days alone, but with one another and with the Lord himself. This season is meant to help us deepen our personal relationship with Christ.  We will journey with Jesus to the desert of temptation and the Mount of the Transfiguration.  We will be with one another in the upper room of the Last Supper and the cross at Calvary.

I encourage you to take some time now to plan your Lent 2019.  Check out our parish website ( www.stmarysparish.org) for some special Lenten resources.  I ask you to pray about and recommend that you take part in our upcoming  Light of the World Retreat (March 29-April 1) and to join us for one or all three nights of our  Cluster Lenten Mission. During Lent we offer you daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confessions, rosary, Stations of the Cross, Soup Suppers and more.

Let this be the Lent when you can truly “spring forward” in faith!