Letter to Youth from the President of NET Ministries of Canada/ Archbishop of Ottawa
My Dear Young Friends,
This Lent will you join me on the path of holiness?
The invitation isn’t as bold as it sounds. The Church teaches that every member is called to holiness by his or her baptism. Holiness is not for a chosen few, but for everyone.
St. Francis de Sales wrote that there are many different ways to become holy, depending on who you are and what you do. But holiness is for all: the university student, the part-time worker, the young professional, the son and the daughter. Whether you are single or married, a teenage or young adult, a priest or religious – holiness is possible.
There are many means of holiness and we need to follow those that best suit our individual strengths, challenges and duties.
Lent offers us three traditional means to draw near to God: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.
The prayer above all others is the Eucharist. All should strive to renew their commitment to Sunday Mass as the centre of their life of faith. Daily Mass or meditation on the daily Scripture readings can extend the Lord’s Day throughout the week (you can find the daily readings at www.usccb.org/nab)
One method of meditating on Scripture is called Lectio Divina. I will be leading a young adult version of Lectio once a month until May. Come out and enter into the spirit of Lent. (see www.ottawacatholicyouth.com).
Morning and Evening prayer, grace before meals and other devotions such as the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Stations of the Cross also express a faith that is alive and grateful to God for our many blessings.
Eucharistic adoration allows our love for the Lord in the Eucharist to deepen. It helps us come to know his will for our lives.
Fasting and abstinence are still, and always will be, a very important aspect of Christian life. Catholics are called to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent and to fast (eat only one full meal) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. These sacrifices express our desire for renewal at the start of Lent (Ash Wednesday) and our gratitude for the Lord’s gift of his life for us (Fridays, especially Good Friday).
Other traditional acts of “giving up” such things as candy, alcohol, or tobacco during Lent help make our Lenten sacrifice personal; they symbolize our desire to “turn from sin and believe the Good News”. Almsgiving can start with money saved by these sacrifices. We should be particularly caring for the needy near and far. Think of involving yourselves in the social justice programs of your parishes through programs such as ThinkFast; a famine retreat created by Development and Peace, the social justice program promoted by the Bishops of Canada.
One of the shortest paths to holiness is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Church requires Catholics who are conscious of serious sin to make an annual confession. But going to confession during this sacred season helps all of us grow spiritually and to share more fully in Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. So, we can all worthily fulfill our duty to receive Holy Communion during Eastertide (from the Easter Vigil to Pentecost Sunday).
May the Lord walk beside us as we set out to celebrate the Easter mystery “with mind and heart renewed” (Lenten Preface 1).
Sincerely in Christ,
Terrence Prendergast, S.J.
Archbishop of Ottawa
What is Lent?
Lent is the penitential season of approximately 40 days set aside by the Church in order for the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. During this holy season, inextricably connected to the Paschal Mystery, the Catechumens prepare for Christian initiation, and current Church members prepare for Easter by a recalling of Baptism and by works of penance, that is, prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Even in the early Church, Lent was the season for prayerful and penitential preparation for the feast of Easter. Though the obligation of penance was originally only imposed on those who had committed public sins and crimes, by medieval times all the faithful voluntarily performed acts of penance to repair for their sins.
Ash Wednesday is the clarion call to “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15). For the next forty days, the faithful willingly submit to fasting and self-denial in imitation of Our Lord’s forty-day fast in the desert. It is in these dark and still nights, these desert-times, that the soul experiences its greatest growth. There, in the inner arena, the soul battles the world, the flesh and the devil just as Our Lord battled Satan's triple temptation in the desert. His battle was external, for Jesus could not sin; our battle is interior, but with a hope sustained by the knowledge of Christ’s Easter victory over sin and death.
His victory is our renewal, our “spring” — which is the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon word, “lengten” or Lent. In this penitential season we have the opportunity to make an annual spiritual “tune-up”, a 40-day retreat with Our Lord. Have we allowed worldly cares and the “daily drama” to obscure our call to holiness? Have self-love and materialism eroded our relationship with God? Then let us renew our efforts, and through our Lenten observance, discipline the body and master it as we “follow in the footsteps of the poor and crucified Christ” (St. Francis of Assisi).
Activity Source: Original Text (JGM & MG) by Jennifer Gregory Miller and Margaret Gregory
