Dear fellow parishioners,


I am hoping that you will make this Lent a time for some real spiritual growth.


To all who are a mature 15 years or older, as I have said in the past, don’t give up chocolate. Eat the chocolate and do something of real substance, something that pushes your boundaries and causes you to grow.


Much love!

Fr. Patrick


Some suggestions:


Almsgiving:


1. Take a good look at the world and consider giving financial help to:

  • forever and always, St. Vincent de Paul Society or RAIN Project, or Many Meals
  • Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services
  • St. Margaret Mary food panty (donate in wooden boxes in Padre Serra vestibule)
  • earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria
  • breast cancer or other cancer-related research
  • the scholarship program of your college or St. Mary Magdalene School
  • the various land and nature conservation conservancies
  • programs that build homes for the poor and low-income housing agencies
  • whatever charity motivates you to generosity for the needy – you know the causes that matter to you.


2. Giving volunteer time to worthy causes is a terrific way for the young or those on fixed incomes but with lots of time can tithe time instead of money

  • OASIS (Older Adult Services and Intervention Systems)
  • Boys and Girls Clubs
  • Scouting
  • visiting the sick
  • bringing Holy Communion to the housebound
  • teaching religious education
  • battered women’s shelters
  • hospice volunteer
  • Many Meals
  • Big Brothers / Big Sisters of Ventura County
  • Casa Pacifica
  • Habitat for Humanity


Prayer:


1. Join in the Mass in a more deliberate way

  • Seek to be more focused on Mass
  • Completely reform your reception of Holy Communion to be completely aware of what you
  • are doing and WHO you are receiving
  • Sing. Sing louder. Join the choir
  • Become an usher, Eucharistic Minister, or altar server
  • Assist your child to be a server or usher
  • Greet at least one unknown person every time you come to Mass with a “hello” and a smile
  • Come to weekday Morning Prayer (7:45 am, M-F) and Mass (8:00 am, M-F)


2. Develop a new form of prayer

  • Greet the morning by praying Psalm 100
  • Spend just two quiet minutes in total silence in God’s presence, offering love – do this after
  • work or school and before reconnecting with anyone at home.
  • Be grateful before sleep
  • Spend some quiet time in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel on the way to work or school, or on the way home.
  • Develop the habit of reading through the New Testament.
  • Give a prayer of blessing to all the bad drivers you encounter: “Dear Lord, bring them safely
  • to their homes, for without you, they are lost.”
  • Pray the Rosary
  • Do a novena (easy to find online)
  • Pick up and read a spiritual book
  • Attend sessions of the University this Lent
  • Give God gratitude for every beautiful sunset/sunrise/view of the ocean etc.


3. If you have a spouse, partner, children, or friends living with you, develop some way to add prayer to your common life

  • Say grace together before evening meals
  • Bless your children before taking them to school – “Loving Father, give our (son/daughter/children) a hunger for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Keep (him/her/them) safe and close to you always. (I/We) ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen – Any such words will do!
  • Share a few verses from the Bible together, and have a five-minute chat, applying what you’ve heard to your lives.


4. If there was a way of praying that you used to do that you found life-giving, but you’ve drifted from, recover it!


Fasting:

1. Fast from, that is, cut down on your time or temporarily eliminate

  • social media,
  • watching sports
  • gaming

in order to spend that time with the people who are physically with you: family, friends, fellow volunteers, etc., socializing or preparing and eating meals together.


2. If you find that the following leave you angry, consider fasting from

  • provoking talk shows and radio programs
  • either conservative or liberal commentators and news columnists
  • the news in general (mind you, I believe in being aware of what’s going on in the world, but too many people in confession are telling me they get angry while reading the news).


3. Fast from all but one or two hours of TV time, and use the time saved to play cards, do puzzles together, and take long walks.


4. Fast from alcohol, cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. If you can’t do it from Ash Wednesday to Easter, consider if you have a problem to address.


5. Fast from speeding, honking, rolling stops, and sharp reactions to other people’s driving while driving yourself.


6. Fast from procrastination:

  • Get homework done as soon as you get home from school.
  • Revamp more morning time to get a healthy breakfast and spend a moment preparing your mind and heart for your schedule.
  • Make a list of 5, 10, or 15 items you’ve put off, and get them done this Lent.


7. Fast from processed foods: breakfast cereals, white bread, instant noodles, bacon, salami, hotdogs, potato chips, tortilla chips, sausage, pâté, chips, crackers, boxed mixes, ready meals/microwave meals, etc.


8. Above all, fast from whatever you confess most often in confession (you do go to confession, right?).


9. As I’ve encouraged in the past, fast from

  • despair
  • taking God or other people for granted
  • using biting humor
  • loving things more than people or God
  • any untruth, any lies, giving any false impressions
  • using God’s name in any way but loving and worshipping
  • insecurity, accepting honestly one’s own strengths
  • judging others at all, let alone unkindly
  • blaming others for personal failures
  • business on Sunday
  • disrespect to parents/children/police/teachers, etc.
  • disrespecting other peoples’ cultures
  • providing a bad example to family members, coworkers, or neighbors
  • jumping to or nurturing anger
  • harsh words of any kind
  • gossip, even about small things
  • judging people by surface details
  • teasing
  • nagging
  • careless or distracted driving or bicycle riding
  • eating poorly
  • an uncontrolled temper
  • quarreling
  • holding onto and nurturing grudges
  • envy
  • disproportionate self-indulgence
  • stinginess, especially with the poor
  • waste
  • laziness at work or school
  • thinking the worst of others
  • gluttony with food or drink, especially junk food
  • judging people for their politics
  • self-centeredness
  • movies and literature that are disrespectful of the human body
  • pettiness
  • greed
  • blindness to others’ needs
  • impatience
  • pomposity
  • rudeness
Lent
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