The Pastor's Pen

March 13, 2022, Second Sunday of Lent

A Mission: An Opportunity to Live Lent More Fully: The work of Lent concerns our own renewal in preparation to celebrate new life with the Risen Christ at Easter. This Lenten Mission offers us a unique opportunity to carve out some time to devote to our spiritual renewal by inviting our presence on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening at 7 PM as Fr. Vinny Fortunato delivers his message to us: Lent- A New Springtime. Fr. Vinny will be preaching at all the Masses this weekend, let us welcome him, and make every effort to attend to the message that he is here to share with us to assist us in making this Lent an especially meaningful one.

The Economy of Lent; Giving up to Give More: There is a long tradition of “giving up” for Lent which is a concrete way of doing penance by practicing self-denial. Some tend to think it old-fashioned and are heard to say that instead of “giving up” they prefer to ‘take on” as in doing something charitable. Yet that is something we are already supposed to be doing in whatever way we can as Christians and so doesn’t really answer the penitential call of Lent to gain further mastery over ourselves by saying no to things we may want but don’t actually need like a daily cocktail, a meal out, a daily latte, etc. When we deny ourselves we also spend less money on ourselves and thus have more to spare for the relief of the poor and so these sacrifices enable us to fulfill another discipline of Lent which is almsgiving. As is the custom here at Christ the King Parish, the fruits of our Lenten sacrifices which is the money we saved by forgoing various indulgences for ourselves are collected as Lent comes to an end on Holy Thursday at the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The collection is then shared among three charities., Matthew 25 which funds our weekly food pantry and the monetary assistance provided locally to those in need; Catholic Relief Services which is an agency serving the poor throughout the world in the name of all the Catholics of the United States; The El Tablon Project of Food for the Poor which is a special undertaking of Christ the King Parish supporting the poor in one village in Guatemala. These charities are all worthy of our support, so let us be mindful of them as throughout this Season of Lent we say no to the things we would want to enjoy but will give up instead as a way to practice penance and at the same enable us to be more generous to the poor both in our local community and throughout the world.

Who is Helping in Ukraine?: The Catholic Church has been and continues to remain one of the longest-standing charitable organizations in the world around the world. Caritas, which is the global Papal relief agency is present nearly everywhere and active in the most troubled lands of the world. Caritas is present in Ukraine and in the neighboring ring countries now receiving refugees. The Catholic Relief Services sponsored by the US Bishops and supported by the Catholic people of the United States is one way to channel funds to Caritas in Ukraine as is Catholic Near East Welfare Association. These charitable arms of the Catholic Church are in partnership with Caritas and have been active in Eastern Europe for some time now and so they are present in the areas now under siege by the Russian Army and the countries under stress as they receive many displaced people. This long-standing presence is important because it means that structures and networks are already in place on the ground which enables immediate and effective relief and support to be provided to people most seriously affected by this crisis. So the answer to our question as to who is helping should be that we are, and indeed we will be as the Ash Wednesday Collection is given to Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, a third of our Holy Thursday Collection which represents our almsgiving for Lent will be given to Catholic Relief Services designated for Ukrainian relief, and we will place Collection Baskets for contributions to Catholic Near East Welfare Association ( CNEWA) at the entrances to the Church for the next two weeks so that a significant contribution can be sent to that agency to help now with the tremendous needs that must be met.