The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Lent is waning (growing smaller/shorter) – have you thought about and prepared for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) as an inner ready-ing for Easter – Christ’s victory over sin and death. We should RUN to the confessional. We run to the sports stadium, a pretty face, the places to eat, the mall, but procrastinate over repentance and confession.
“The bath of Christians is confession!” The Catholic who needs confession in order to receive the Eucharist at Easter and forfeits that opportunity is sadly mistaken.
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And thus, if Lent is the recovery by the Christian of his faith it is also his recovery of life, of its divine meaning, of its sacred depth. It is by abstaining from food that we re-discover its sweetness and learn again how to receive it from God with joy and gratitude. It is by “slowing down” on music and entertainment, on conversation and superficial socializing that we rediscover the ultimate value of human relationship, human work, human art, and rediscover all this because very simply we rediscover God himself because we return to God and in God to all that which God has given us in his infinite love and mercy. (Father Alexander Schmemann)
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Some of us have settled into the Sugar Fast and discovered that, with God’s help, we are more capable then we ever imagined. Others of us abandoned it even weeks ago. We are a culture full of cravings: shopping, sugar, food, pornography, power, speeding, smoking, drugs, alcohol, sex. Is this Sugar Fast really impossible? Especially as we have not undertaken it as an end in itself but alongside the commitment to Smile Train. So what’s the problem?
Here at school when we witness heroic things or persons who stand up to remarkable challenges we’re quick to say, “Oh I could never do that.” Why do we think that way? Have we ever undertaken anything really bold or generous for the sake of God or for someone else – some act of protracted self-forgetting? This discipline of the Sugar Fast is very little compared to what life is going to require of us, especially if we intend to marry and raise a family. Maybe you would like to start over and commit to building some inner stamina.
If you are struggling honestly and generously to keep this little Lenten Fast: “May the Lord bring to completion the good thing he has begun in you.”
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Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lord Jesus, you teach us during these Lenten days
to seek God’s face by the practice of fasting and constant prayer.
Help us during this blessed time to be purified from all sin
so that we may worthily enter into Holy Week and sing your praises on Easter day. Send your blessing upon us in this community and all of those who are dear to us. May we all be led to the glory of your kingdom. Amen.
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Next Sunday is called Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday). Holy Week begins culminating in Easter Sunday. It is a sober week: mindful, prayerful, pure. Holy Thursday: we remember the Lord Jesus giving us the gift of himself in the Holy Eucharist. The washing of feet is intimately linked to the Eucharist: the new commandment of love.
Good Friday is a quiet day: remembering the Lord’s trial, his suffering and death on Calvary. We hear the account of Jesus’ passion told by Saint John. We pray for the world’s concerns. We venerate the Wood of the Cross and receive Holy Communion which was consecrated the night before.
Holy Saturday: there is the long night vigil – the New Fire is lighted outside; the Easter Candle (symbol of Christ rising over darkness) escorts us into our chapel. We hear the story of Salvation History. We celebrate the new life of Christ in Baptism as our friends approach the font where they will be ritually drown: the death of the old man and the rising of the new. We renew the vows of our own Baptism which began Christ-life in us and celebrate the Eucharist with joy and hope renewed. It is a splendid week!
