By Fr. Francis
It is a sad reality that the COVID pandemic has had an enormously negative impact on many people’s faith lives over these past two years. Out of fear of the virus, many people have fallen out of the habit of coming to Mass and serving in the community.
Lent is the perfect time to change all of that! Lent is a season when we are encouraged to examine our lives and our relationships. And, if we are being honest with ourselves, I think we will all recognize that our love for God and our neighbor is not all that we would like it to be. The Church gives us these 40 days of Lent as an opportunity to make changes and to recommit ourselves to being disciples of Jesus Christ.
As we enter into the season of Lent this year, we invite our parishioners to embrace this opportunity to “return to God with all your heart.” Our Lenten theme comes from the hymn, “Return to God.” We will be singing it every Sunday this Lent. The refrain is: “Return to God with all your heart, the source of grace and mercy; come seek the tender faithfulness of God.” What a beautiful invitation! We are all in desperate need of grace and mercy, especially with all of the challenges we are facing in our world right now. The hymn is a beautiful reminder that God is the source of grace and mercy and that God is always ready to bestow these gifts on us because of his tenderness. And because God is always faithful to us.
So how do we return to God with all our heart? There are lots of ways! First and foremost, by getting back into the habit of attending Sunday Mass. Listening to the Gospel, receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, and worshiping with the community is the best way to open ourselves to receiving God’s graces.
For those looking to spend some quieter time in prayer, I highly recommend attending one of our Tuesday night Holy Hours from 7–8 pm in the church. Drop in for a few minutes or stay for the whole hour. It’s a time for prayer and Eucharsitic Adoration. And you will also have the opportunity to experience the tender mercy of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Lent is also about recommitting ourselves to serving others, especially the poor and the vulnerable, as Christ taught us. In the hymn “Return to God” the third verse highlights our call as disciples to be God’s instruments of mercy: “if you break the chains of oppression, if you set the prisoners free, if you share your bread with the hungry, give protection to the lost; give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked in your midst, then your light shall break forth like the dawn.”
Christ calls us to be a light to those in darkness. We invite you to do that by getting involved with one of our
Hands of Mercy Ministries this Lent.
Don’s Helping Hands is always popular: you can sign up online to make sandwiches at home and drop them off, or you can volunteer to hand out sandwiches to our guests when they arrive from 9:30–10:30 Monday–Friday. Our
Kolbe House Jail Ministry provides for support for prisoners throughout the Illinois incarceration system. Our
Aging Outreach seeks to partner with Symphony and the Little Sisters of the Poor to brighten the lives of their elderly residents through care packages, personal visits and bringing communion. There are also many other outreach programs and service opportunities that you can find on our
parish website under: Serve.
Finally, I invite each of you to join our parish-wide retreat on Sunday, March 5th, from 2–4:30 pm in church. Join our “Spring Training” program, and get spiritually “fit” with fellow parishioners!
RSVP Here!
We hope that you will “return to God with all your heart” this Lent by joining us for Mass, for a Holy Hour, by volunteering to serve others, and through our parish retreat. We want to welcome you home to St. Josaphat so that you can experience once more the grace, mercy and tender faithfulness of God.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Francis
