Welcome Back to Experience the Power

Welcome back to this powerful season of Lent, a time of ongoing conversion or “turning back” to the God who is the source of all life and blessings, and to the Savior who showed the depth of his love for us through his own suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus invites us to walk this path of sacrificial love together, as his disciples. Disciples are learners, apprentices who model their life vocation according to the model of the master-artisan. As disciples we are “doers” even though we are still learning, growing, and perfecting our craft of lovingly serving God and our neighbor.

When Cardinal Seán visited our collaborative during Lent a couple years back, he preached about Jesus commanding us to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He said it’s hard enough to love our enemies (as we heard in last week’s gospel), but this command is even deeper. How does Jesus love us? We celebrate this kind of love every Christmas as we ponder God giving us the most precious gift he has to give - the gift of himself in his Son. We are inspired by the depth of Jesus’ love every time we prayerfully gaze upon a crucifix showing he loved us unto death. We are called to give sacrificial love to one another, as Jesus has done for us.

Please be sure to take with you today an Abundant Hope “baby bottle” (at St. Martha) or a Catholic Relief “rice bowl” (at St. Mary) to collect change and the money we save with our Lenten sacrifices. Last week’s bulletin had a Lenten Calendar of events, the centerpiece of which is our Lenten Mission (see accompanying article). LaSallette Shrine has many activities planned this Lent also, which you can find at https://lasaletteattleboroshrine.org/. And keep checking our bulletins and website, pwc.church, for updates. So, let’s plan how we will commit ourselves to keep growing as disciples this Lent