Ideas for Lent

MEN

“INTO THE BREACH”
Into the Breach is a call to battle for Catholic Men which urges them to embrace wholeheartedly masculine virtues in a world in crisis. This hard-hitting new video series illustrates the gravity of our duty as men of Christ and offers an inspiring invitation to renew authentic masculinity.
https://www.kofc.org/en/campaigns/into-the-breach.html

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“ISIDORE 45"
Kind of like "Exodus 90" but not as intense.  Challenge yourself to take on some ascetic and prayer practices to ramp-up your relationship with our Faith.  Saturday mornings 6:30 at St. Celestine, those accepting this challenge will meet to discuss how we're doing, encourage each other, and discuss what we're learning in the little black books.

• 30 minutes of prayer each day
• 30 minutes of work-out each day
• Limit screen time (phone/computer/tv) - maybe read a book instead?
• no desserts / reduce sugar
• no eating between meals (unless you're turning into a bear, eat some fruit!)
• Go out of your way to do something for your wife or kids (or family)
• Fast every Friday (you decide the level you can commit to:  no food, one meal, reduced portions, etc)
• Read the Little Black Book devotional daily

             

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WOMEN

The modern woman's guide to the Bible.

Have you ever considered that your day-to-day struggles are, at their core, timeless and universal? Though your challenges are deeply personal, they are also deeply human, and God has provided workable solutions for you through the teachings of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church.

Walking with Purpose would like to help you enjoy a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ, nurtured through personal Bible study and small group discussions created just for women.
https://walkingwithpurpose.com/

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Little Children

Consider having children give up "screens": cell phones, video games, tablets, and television. Read a book each week instead.  Consider encouraging your little ones to abstain from meat on Friday and even to fast (under your supervision of course). Have them put 10% of their piggy bank into the collection basket. Bring them with you to the Way of the Cross or your Holy Hour each week.  Take them along to serve at a soup kitchen or visit the elderly.

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EVERYONE

“Best Lent Ever”
Don’t Give Up Chocolate for Lent
SO… WHAT IS BEST LENT EVER?
It’s a totally free and totally awesome daily Lenten video program (sent straight to your email) that will help you unlock your God-given potential.
from Dynamic Catholic (Matthew Kelly’s organization)
https://dynamiccatholic.com/best-lent-ever

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Our Lady of Fatima Traveling Pilgrimage Statue

(Check the local parish bulletins for specific events.  Here is when it will be close to our parish:)

Huntingburg, Monday, March 16^th – starting with Mass and procession at 6 pm.  Ending 6:30 a.m. Tues

Holy Trinity Catholic School (Precious Blood campus) – Tuesday, March 17, 8 am Mass/procession.

Holy Trinity Catholic School (Holy Family campus) – Tuesday, March 17, 1 pm procession and rosary

St. Joe, Jasper – Tuesday, March 17, 6:20 pm  Procession/Mass.  Ending 4:30 pm Wed.

Also at Daylight Mar 13-15, Vincennes March 15-16, Dale March 18-19 and Rockport March 19-20.. 

Also MOVIE : Fatima: A Message of Hope  Monday, MARCH 9 TH, TIME: 6-8PM CDT
WHERE: ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH (Lower Level)           LENGTH: 52 minutes
Everyone Invited & Snacks Provided!

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Personal Retreat on your computer

https://praymoreretreat.org/

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Little Black Book 

The Knights of Columbus sponsor having these books for reflection at all the doors.  They're a simple way to add a daily reflection to your prayer life for Lent.

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THE ULTIMATE LENT LIST

1. Pray the Rosary every day.


2. Receive Communion at Mass every day.


3. Go to Confession every Friday or once a week.

4. Pray the Family Rosary every day or once a week.


5. Pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday.

6. Pray in silence 15 minutes a day.

7. Make a Eucharistic visit every day.


8. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day.


9. Fast on bread and water one to three times per week.

10. Read a spiritual book

11. Give a painfully large donation to charity.
 (Try adding an extra "zero" when you write the check.)

12. Donate to charity instead of buying something for yourself.


13. Pray "Jesus, I love you!" in the first waking seconds of the day.


14. Listen to Catholic CDs or stream Catholic talks during your commute.

15. Do something romantic or sacrificial to improve your marriage.


16. Volunteer anywhere: at your kid's school, homeless shelter, etc
.

17. Visit a home for the elderly.


18. Read a Gospel or all four Gospels.


19. Memorize ten favorite Bible verses.


20. Did we mention fasting one to three times a week?

21. Look through the CD’s at the church door and give some away to those you think might need them.

22. Oh, why not Pray in silence for an hour every day.


23. Set more time aside to be with your children or grandchildren.

24. Give up something you absolutely love, crave, or spend time on, or that annoys others, including:

• lying

• your cellphone (or texting, shopping online, social media, etc.)

• television or your favorite television show

• television before a certain hour

• television after a certain hour

• eating while watching television

• coffee or tea (yes, coffee)

• coffee or tea you don't brew at home

• caffeine in any form

• diet soda (or soda)

• donuts

• hamburgers

• pizza (yes, pizza)

• chocolate

• anything with chocolate flavor

• all snacks or desserts

• going to movies or Netflix, Hulu, Redbox, etc.

• non-essential Internet

• March Madness

• following your favorite sports team

• video games

• slouching

• gambling (legal or otherwise)

• celebrity magazines

• golf (an objectively grave moral evil) (only kidding)

• booze (yes, booze)

• a destructive, irresistible "friendship"

• foul language

• picking your nose

• showing up late

• not grooming properly

• not flossing every day (yuck!)

• sports, music, or talk radio

• fantasy sports

• restaurants

• eating lunch outside of work

• driving when you could walk

• sleeping in late

• hitting the Snooze Button in the morning

• fast food drive-throughs

• not cooking breakfast for your kids

• shopping for clothes or food

• not stopping by your neighbors to say hello

• failing to visit or call your relatives

• soap operas

• the beach (for those of you lucky enough to have one nearby)

• the woods, lakes, or mountains (ditto)

• working on cars

• working in your shop

• chess, checkers, cards, board games

• fishing, hunting, four-wheeling

• skateboarding

• some of your "me" time doing any hobby

• your absolute favorite hobby (aha, you just fainted!)

• not reading

• reading (ha!)

• not exercising regularly

• exercising (too much)

• nagging your husband (you know who you are)

• criticizing your wife (she knows who you are)

• interrupting others

• not smiling whenever you meet someone

• crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku

• knitting? (you addicts understand)

• cigarettes

• half or a third of those cigarettes

• vaping

• cigars, gum, and "phony candy" breath mints

• not taking real breath mints

• cookies

• chips or pretzels (I skipped pretzels when I was a kid)

• cellphone calls in your car (more difficult than you think)

• podcasts (or listen only to religious podcasts)

• all non-necessary texting

• not eating your vegetables (even you adults)

• ice cream, donuts, cake

• your favorite dish

• fudging on your tax return

• gossiping at work—say something nice instead

• gossiping anywhere

• stealing "little stuff" from your employer, including time online

• relations with your spouse (on certain days or weeks)

• not having relations with your spouse (if it applies)

• thinking about yourself when you wake up or go to bed (pray instead)

• thinking about yourself when you drive (pray instead)

• talking when you could listen

• buying anything you don't really need

• not making your bed

2020/02/02 Feast of the Presentation: 490 is a Big Deal.... wait for it...

Before Mass
Today is the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple – big deal, right?  Actually – it IS a big deal, but in order to appreciate that – as usual – we gotta dig back into a bit of history – so put on your seat belts ‘cause I’ll be moving fast.

To put this into perspective, do you remember when the wall was knocked down between East and West Berlin?  It was  BIG deal – I remember the night it happened.  Now for those too young, you may not even remember the event – or appreciate why it was such a big deal…how, after WWII, families were torn apart as the wall was built – and thousands of people died trying to cross the manmade border.  You don’t remember all the years of the cold war and how the world lived in fear of a nuclear war.  But that night, it ended… it was HUGE.  That’s a view of what happened in the temple TODAY. 

Apply that to your own life – think about something you waited a LONG time for – like getting married – or graduating from school – or having kids – or retiring…. Or MOTHERS – you waiting 9 months for your child to arrive.  Think of THAT moment and how you felt when whatever you were waiting for finally arrived.  Keep that in mind as you listen to the Gospel. 

Homily
Don’t know if you noticed that Luke is very particular about the number of days for some reason.  He starts today with “when the days for their purification were complete’…. What’s that mean?  When a Jewish woman had a baby boy, on the 7th day he would be circumcised – then the mother was still considered unclean for 33 days.  That’s 40 days, right – so what happened 40 days ago today?  Christmas – right.  What happened 9 months before then… obviously, the annunciation on March 25 when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her she was gonna have a baby.  What happened 6 months before that?  The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah announcing that Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist.  Count that up- 40 days plus 9 months plus 6 months…. That is 490 days.  Anybody here recognize the significance of 490?  Didn’t think so… but if we were in 1st century Israel, EVERYbody would raise their hands because 490 is a SIGNIFICANT number.

To understand why, this is where I have to give a quick history lesson:  600 years prior to Jesus’ birth, the prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of God LEAVE the temple!  You may remember that the Glory Cloud was a physical presence of God that was settled on the Arch of the Covenant, which was housed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.  But that day, Ezekiel saw the glory cloud lift and exit to the east.  It was devastating!  God had left his people!  All hope left with him… and not long after that, Babylon came in and destroyed the Temple and exiled many people to Babylon.  Yes, all hope was gone.

Until, a few years later, in Babylon, Gabriel appeared to Daniel and told him that the glory of God would reappear in the temple in 7 weeks of 70 years…. Yeah it’s a weird way to speak, but I won’t get into that.  What is 7 weeks of 70 years? ….7x70= 490.  Recognize that number:  490?  It’s hard to figure out the exactly when the 490 years started, but many people believed that the time of fulfillment was now!  In fact, Herod had just rebuilt the temple 20 years prior, but they were waiting for the glory of God to come back.  The Holy of Holies was an empty room – no arc of the covenant – no glory cloud.

That’s why people like Simeon and Anna were hanging around the temple every day.  The 490 years were up… the glory was going to reappear in the temple any day now… and TODAY it did.  The Lord, Jesus, came back into the temple for the first time in 490 years….and just to make the point clearer, Luke’s timeline shows that this event was on the 490th day of his story.  Luke wanted to make SURE that everyone recognized that THIS was the fulfillment of the prophesy to Daniel!  This was a huge day… hope was restored.  God had come back among his chosen people.

Big deal, right?  Why should we care…

Because the underlying message is that God fulfills His promises.  He may seem to delay – but his timing is perfect.  Even when hope seems completely lost, we can wait for God to fulfill his promises. 

Apply this to your own life:  was there a time you were without hope and waiting for God to intervene?  Maybe that’s you right now… your health, your marriage, your job, your kids, your future – so many uncertainties – things that give us a pit in our stomach.  It’s not supposed to be like this, God – when will you act?  When will you come?  I don’t have the answers.  Hopefully each of us HAS recognized those moments when God DID let his glory shine and we can put our hope in that.  Regardless – even when it seems God has forgotten us – we can put our trust in His promise to be with us always. 

Here’s a short story to maybe make that point clearer:
The king of a certain country was growing old, and he had no son to succeed him. He announced to his people that he would choose an heir to the throne from among the young men of the kingdom by holding a competition.  On the appointed day, hundreds – maybe thousands of men of all ages showed up.  Various tests and trials were presented - and some failed while others passed. Then other tests and more trials – and each time some were rejected till at last only three were left.

The competition continued for several more hours - They were put through test after test, but all seemed equally able to meet them, so the king announced through his heralds that on the next day the matter would be decided by a foot-race. The course was marked off, the judges were at their places, and all was ready. Just before the start of the race, a man came up to each of the contestants and said secretly to him, "The king is taking special note of you. Do not run when the gun fires, but wait until the king gives you a special signal." The three took their places eager for the race. Three-two-one… the gun was fired…, one bounded forward quickly, then hesitated and stopped – apparently remembering the instruction given; but by then another man sprang forward after him, not wanting to be left behind – so the first man started sprinting again and they ran for the finish line as fast as they could. The third man stood looking anxiously at the king and at the two runners, murmuring to himself, "I can make it yet, I can make it yet." The king gazed at the runners and gave no heed to the one still standing. The waiting man thought himself forgotten and his heart sank as he realized that it would be impossible for him to win the race.

The two runners ran on at top speed, reaching the finish line neck and neck. They were brought back, and all three stood before the king. To the first he said, "Were you not told not to run until I gave you the signal? Why then did you run?"

"I was so excited, I forgot," said the man.
Of the second he asked the same question. His reply was, "I thought it would be but a moment till you would give the signal, and seeing the other guy running I ran also."
To the third he said, "And why did not you run?"
"Because you did not give me the signal, sir," he answered.
"My son," said the king, "I knew that you could run, but I did not know that you could wait."

So the young man found that the test was not a test of doing but of waiting.