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| March 2004 |
| Arrival of Lenten season offers chance
to prepare for Easter celebration |
Gene Young
Managing Editor
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The congregations at St. Anthony of Padua
Parish, Hoven, and St. John the Baptist Parish, Onaka, are already
heavily involved with the season of Lent.
Father Lance Oser, pastor at the two parishes has been preparing
the 275 St. Anthony families and 38 St. John families for weeks.
For Father Oser, the season of Lent is also about reaching out
to his parishioners and focusing on the opportunities and goals
of Lent. “I began by giving them reminders in our parish
bulletin,” he said. “The 40 days are where we prepare
for the great feast of Easter.”
Lent is very much a time of preparation, according to Father
Oser. “It is a time that, spiritually, we’re to
go into the desert with our Lord as he prepared for his public
ministry. It’s a time to consider the ways in which we
can deepen our conversion to Christ.”
Lent begins with receipt of ashes on Ash Wednesday and requires
Catholics to fast that day and on Good Friday and abstain from
meat on those days and all the Fridays of Lent.
Father Oser realizes that those requirements are the most recognizable
symbols of Lent but he points out to his congregations that
the season really is about much more and offers many other opportunities.
“It should be a time of greater prayer,” he said.
In Hoven and Onaka, they offer the Stations of the Cross each
Friday, as do many of the diocese’s parishes.
Father Oser also promotes among his congregations a greater
awareness of and concern for the poor. He encourages his parishioners
to focus during Lent on doing more charitable works. “St.
Peter writes in his letter, ‘Charity covers a multitude
of sins.’ So, as part of our Lenten atonement, we are
to consider greater acts of charity towards neighbor,”
he said.
The Hoven and Onaka pastor recognizes that it is not an easy
time for most people, especially given the consumerism and materialism
of the culture in which we live. But he adds, the season is
well worth the sacrifices and commitments we make.
“Lent is a time of self-denial, of not indulging, of not
buying, purchasing or acquiring,” he said. “It is
a challenge but there are many who are up to a challenge and
they want a faith that calls them beyond themselves, beyond
the routine, beyond the ordinary.”
“You get out of it what you put into it,” Father
Oser added. “It’s a time of planting and harvesting.
It’s trying to pull up the weeds and plant virtue.”
The 40 days of Lent lead to the Church’s most blessed
season, the 50 days of Easter. The two seasons are large part
of the Church year and, as a result, Father Oser does not believe
you can put too much effort and energy into Lenten observances.
“Each person is called upon to make sacrifice and how
they want to go about doing that is based upon the generosity
that is in their heart,” he said.
Many parishes in the diocese offer weekly Stations of the Cross,
parish missions or encourage participation in Operation Rice
Bowl, the official Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services.
It calls Catholics in the United States to promote human dignity
and foster global solidarity with the poor around the world
through prayer, fasting, learning and giving during the season.
In Hoven and Onaka, Father Oser is offering a “penance
liturgy.” “It aims to get people to focus in on
where are we off track with the Lord,” Father Oser said.
“Are we gong in the right direction? If we are going to
be honest with ourselves, there are some areas in our lives
where we are not...that’s a challenge that can be very
difficult.”
So, Father Oser offers the sacrament of reconciliation where
he hopes to help his congregations get more from Lent.
There are also daily prayers and devotions in Lent that can
help people get more from Lent.
According to Father Oser, there are many different ways for
different people to get involved and cultivate value from the
Lenten season.
In his almost two years serving in Hoven and Onaka, Father Oser
has seen Lent make a difference for many people in his congregations.
“Some people will get involved in volunteering in prison
ministry or they volunteer to help the poor in one way or another
during Lent and they find that they make a difference in other
people’s lives,” he said. “They find that
their own lives are deeper and richer as a result of their Lenten
involvement.”
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