As you know, Easter is a movable feast,  celebrated on the first Sunday after   the Paschal full moon -  the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox. So, E aster always falls between March 22 and April 25. This year, Easter is considered "late," in that it will be on April 22. Now, to  find Ash Wednesday, you start with the date of Easter Sunday, back up six weeks (that gives you the first Sunday of Lent) and then back up four more days. Thus, Ash Wednesday is the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, and this year that date will be March 6 - two weeks from now.

Traditionally at St. Louise School, starting on Ash Wednesday and continuing throughout the Lenten season's six weeks, the students are immersed in the three pillars of Lent - praying, fasting, and almsgiving. The praying will begin at 1:45 on the 6th in the form of an Ash Wednesday Liturgy. (Please plan on joining us if you can.) Ashes will be applied to our foreheads in the sign of the cross as the words spoken by Father or the ministers will be either: "Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return" or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." These words and this act of placing ashes highlight our call to repeatedly repent our sins, constantly strive to live holy lives, and always keep in mind that we are mortal, but there is hope for eternal life in Jesus if we do indeed "turn away from sin."

The fasting on Ash Wednesday will be in the form of both your kids and our faculty giving up the usual full & filling lunch for a simple lunch that will hopefully cause our stomachs to growl by the end of the school day. Fasting is a form of penance and self-denial. Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. We can fast for a few hours as we remember all He gave up for us, including His life.

This year, the simple lunch we will serve to all the students (and faculty) in place of the typical filling lunch packed from home will be rice and beans. We have been serving soup lunches in past Ash Wednesdays, but wanted to shake things up a bit with a meal that is meatless yet has protein, doesn't have as many allergic issues, and truly will give your children a sense of how little many in our world have in which to subsist. We expect every student (from full day PreK through 8th grade) and every school staff member (from teachers to principals) to participate in the simple rice and beans lunch. Students can have their usual drink at lunch time (school milk or their own beverage) and if students are already allowed by their teachers to daily bring mid-morning snacks, these snacks could still be brought and eaten on the 6th. If there is an allergic/dietary reason why your child cannot eat white rice and pinto beans for lunch, please send a medically-explained excuse note to your child's teacher and substitute a bare-bones meal from home. Oh, and by the way, the excuse of "my child doesn't like rice and beans" isn't a medically-explained excuse. ;-)

Finally, the third pillar of Lent will be highlighted during Ash Wednesday when we ask your children, as they walk through the lunch line in the parish hall picking up their bowl of rice and beans, to give a donation. We are suggesting that each student bring $5 cash which we will donate to Seattle's Union Gospel Mission. ($5 is a guesstimate of how much would have been spent on a filling lunch. Your child can always donate more.) The Union Gospel Mission (UGM) will be the recipient of our school community's almsgiving this year. Already we have collected $550 in donations to UGM when we held our recent Faculty Bake Sale. We hope to donate another $1,500 or so from your family's $5 lunch donations.  Motivated by our Christian faith, UGM provides extensive 360-degree support and recovery services for homeless men, women, and children throughout King County. Your kids will hear more from UGM this coming Wednesday when they are here to present information on how donations help the homeless. 

More Lenten information will be forthcoming next week, as we'll send you next Thursday a listing of the various liturgies and events taking place throughout the parish from March 6 through April's Holy Week.  The Lenten season is a terrific time to rejuvenate your prayer lives and to create and/or continue some memorable family practices, such as attending Stations of the Cross.

Finally, I'll be emailing every school family later today with a link to our 2nd trimester Parent Survey. Thanks for taking 10 minutes to complete the survey. It will be active through February 28.