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IN THIS ISSUE:
AS WE APPROACH THE SEASON OF LENT … On February 17th, Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent. Once again, ashes will be put on our foreheads and we will be told to repent and believe in the gospel - cold comfort in the midst of winter. But if Lent is here, Easter and spring are just a few weeks away. What is Lent all about? What is the passion and death of Christ all about? It could be summed up in one word. A well-used word, so well used that is has become trite. The word is love. Only love makes Christ believable. Only love makes sense out of Lent, out of the passion and death of Christ. Lent is best summed up as we realize and experience the love and passion of Christ. Something happened to Him. He suffered. The priests plotted again Him. Judas kissed Him. The crowd laid hands on Him. Herod laughed at Him. Pilate delivered Him to be crucified. The guard whipped Him. The soldiers nailed Him to wood. The passers-by jeered at Him. A thief cursed Him. And He died. What happened to Jesus? What He suffered makes sense only in the context of what He did. The one thing He did supremely more than anything else, better than anyone else, He loved. St. John tells us in his gospel. When Jesus knew that His hour had come for Him to pass out of this world to the Father having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Loved them to the uttermost limit of love, loved them totally and loved them to death. It is because of His love of us, you and I, that Christ died. No other reason. St. Paul sums it up. He loved me and gave Himself for me. Show me a man writhing on a cross and I will be moved to pity to disgust to horror at man’s inhumanity to man. Show me a man writhing on a cross in love and surrendering his body to crucifixion because he loves me. Then I will be drawn to belief, to self-giving, to love in return. This is the challenge of Lent and of Holy Week. The effort of love to draw love. His love to draw mine. We are reminded of His love at every Mass. That moment when time turns back and Calvary comes alive in the words – This is my body, which is given up for you. This is my blood, which is poured out for you. It is love alone that makes Christ believable. So it follows that love alone makes the Christian believable. Christianity is not an idea floating freely in outer space. Christianity is people, God’s people. Christ and Christianity will be believable only if your love makes you believable. Remember what He told us – “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another.” John 13. -34,35Yours in Christ, The 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was concluded with a very special service – an Ecumenical Celebration of the Word of God – on Monday, January 25th at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist bishops officiated. The Friars and Sisters of the Atonement were recognized at the service for their more than 100 years of dedication to Christian Unity. VIEW A SPECIAL LENTEN VIDEO >> “Lent just isn’t what it used to be,” someone said the other day. And what she had in mind, apparently, was memories of those five dour weeks when we “gave up” things that purportedly meant a lot to us. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I reminded him of Our Lord’s words to his disciples: “When you fast, do not look gloomy like hypocrites…But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not appear to be fasting…” (Mt.6:16-18). Then I quoted to her words from the preface for masses during Lent: “Each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed. You give us a spirit of loving reverence for you .. and of willing service to our neighbor.” Lent… joyful? Truth be told, Lent should be a joyful season because it prepares us to celebrate once again not just Easter, but the entire paschal mystery – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – and our incorporation into it through baptism. In a word, both Lent and Easter point to baptism and its implications for Gospel living. And there are traditional ways to prepare for it. For example: On the Sunday before Ash Wednesday (February 14th this year), we’ll burn the dried palm branches which will be used to make the ashes imposed on our foreheads – an ancient sign of repentance – later in the week. On Shrove Tuesday evening, the night before Ash Wednesday, we’ll gather for a pancake supper, another custom dating back to the time when the use of all meat by-products (like fat) was prohibited during Lent. For more information and to make reservations click here. And on Ash Wednesday (February 17th) we’ll assemble for mass and the imposition of ashes, allowing ourselves to be reminded of the ongoing challenge to “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” Mass, blessing and imposition of the ashes will be at 11:30 AM and 8:00 PM in the Little Flower Chapel at Graymoor. For more information regarding events for Lent at Grayrmoor, e-mail graymoorcenter@atonementfriars.org, or call (845) 424-3671 Ext. 2111. CARF International announced that St. Christopher's Inn has been accredited for a period of three years for its Alcohol and Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment Programs. This is the first accreditation that the international accrediting body has awarded to St. Christopher's Inn. The XXXI Paul Wattson Seminar and Lecture will be held at the University of San Francisco on Monday, February 22, 2010 beginning at 3 p.m. The Rev. Dr. Fernando Enns from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, will deliver a lecture entitled: "A Decade to Overcome Violence - 2000 to 2010: An Ecumenical Journey Towards a Common Understanding of Just Peace." The Fourth Graymoor Lecture was given by Rabbi Joseph Potasnik. Rabbi Potasnik is Senior Rabbi of Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights, NY; Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis; and is co-host of WABC Radio's "Religion on the Line". His lecture was entitled: "The State of Interreligious Dialogue: A Jewish Perspective" Click here to subscribe to this newsletter |
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Atonement Friars eNews is the monthly e-newsletter of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement | |||||
news from the Holy Mountain and beyond 
