We have begun the Season of Lent. It can be a wonderful time to grow in our faith in and love of Jesus Christ. The Church proposes three main activities every Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. While these are practices we can do throughout the year, every Lent we redouble or restart our efforts at these practices. In a word, we join Christ in the desert. Here at our parish we have many opportunities for these practices. Just this weekend we have the opportunity to give alms. The Little Sisters of the Poor run Jeanne Jugan Residence Home; it is a well known institution: Well-known for its extraordinary care of its patients. There the sisters, staff and faculty do not just provide physical and psychological care, but also spiritual. The residents have daily opportunities to attend Mass and pray. This weekend we have a chance to hear from the sisters of the good work that goes on there and to show our support. Fasting is a form of penance that imposes limits on the kind or quantity of food or drink. Truth to tell we fast throughout the entire year. Notice that Friday has never ceased to be a day of penance and self-denial throughout the year, because it was on a Friday that our Lord died for our sins. Likewise, we fast an hour before every Mass. Lent is a period when we increase our fasting or add additional practices. This comes from Jesus himself who went into the desert to fast and prepare for his public ministry, death and crucifixion. He is our model and he expects his disciples to do the same. Until 1966 during Lent the Church prescribed taking only one full meal a day, along with some food for breakfast and a collation. Days of fast and abstinence for the universal Church were Ash Wednesday, the Fridays and Saturdays of Lent, Ember days, and the vigils of certain feasts. Special indults (or exemptions) affected different nations and were provided for by canon law (for instance, eating meat on St. Patrick ’s Day). With the constitution Paenitemini of Paul VI in 1966, the meaning of the law of fasting remained, but the extent of the obligation was changed. Thus “the law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, while observing approved local custom as far as quantity and quality of food are concerned.” To the law of fast are bound those of the faithful who have completed their twenty-first year and up until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Prescribed days of fast and abstinence for the whole Church are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The document also recommends, however, that “we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten season a period of special penitential observance… [and] for all other weekdays of Lent, we strongly recommend participation in daily Mass and a self-imposed observance of fasting.” The last pillar of Lent is prayer. Here at St. Teresa, in addition to our regular Mass schedule, we will have Stations of the Cross every Friday at 6pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to join our Lord on the way to the Cross. Prayer, afterall, is not just petitionary, but tries to bring us into contact with the one whom we love. When we attend Stations we say to Christ: “Lord I want to be with you, even there.” Many have experienced one cross or another through life. The Stations of the Cross devotions reminds us: we do not carry our crosses alone; Christ is already there, going ahead of us, showing us the way. On a sad note, I have discovered from other parishioners that a person sending emails and texts claiming to be me is asking for money. The message says that the person is in a meeting and cannot talk but needs gift cards sent to him for some cause. The message has my name on it “Fr. Joshua Barrow” but If you look at the phone number or the email address it is not mine. I would not send you an email or text asking for gift cards. If you have received a message like this, please delete it. If you have sent gift cards to this person, then please let me know so that we can bring it to the proper authorities.