What to give up this year...
If you want to know what Lent has been like on the college campus this year - there 'ya go. Just take a look at the picture... People are giving up the typical things like chocolate, soda, ipods, facebook, and the like (as well as some things which genuinely made me chuckle and think "you should probably think about giving that one up permanently").
There were nearly 1,000 staff, administration, and students who came to Ash Wednesday Masses on February 22nd, and you couldn't walk more than 10 feet on campus without seeing someone donning their ashes that day.
Fr. Jim reminded students of the importance and purpose of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving this Lent, "Jesus doesn’t want to meet us in our pasts, or for us to waste any more time anxiously anticipating the future. Jesus comes to meet us, here and now. And if we hear the words of Ash Wednesday and truly respond to them – Turn away from Sin, be faithful to the Gospel - we won’t have to re-write our past history, we can begin, instead, to repair the damage of our sins, we can begin to heal from the pain of that, and set out to start and create a new present - and a much different future."
"He fasted for forty days and forty nights..." - Matthew 4:2
My prayers are with you all this Lent as we journey with Christ in these 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving - and please keep me in yours!
