March 1, 2022: At the Threshold of Lent

Lenten Greetings Everyone!

Recap of Last Class

First of all, thanks for your contributions to the Mothers' Day Collection for inmates.

We last met on Fat Tuesday, and we spent time looking ahead to Lent, which began the next day on Ash Wednesday.

Our opening prayer had a series of Scripture-based passages that speak about ashes, based on the customary palm burning prayer liturgy used in years past.

Mr. Smyth visited to discuss this year's Lenten project, which, in collaboration with St. Giles, is raising funds to support Housing Forward House-to-Home kits.  Everyone got paperwork to take home with details.  We encourage you to contribute using money from allowance, chores, or whatever extras you're giving up for Lent.

We then did a snowball toss to think about Lent.  The Season of Lent has its origins in a lengthy , intensified preparation period that took place 40 days before the celebration of the Resurrection for those preparing for baptism.  For all of us who are already baptized, it is a time for us to grow in our relationship with God so we can be ready to experience renewal when we get to Easter/Resurrection Sunday, when we renew our baptismal promises, just like at Confirmation Mass.

We then finished the final three videos in the series on the Mass.  Links to the videos are below.

Activity for this Week

Please take some time to read an article in a Roman Catholic publication.

You may go to the website of Chicago Catholic, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and pick any article to read.

You can also visit the website of the Knights of Columbus and pick an article to read in the weekly Knightline newsletter.  You can view articles in the current week, or go to the right side of the page to find articles in a previous week.  You may also read an article in the Columbia magazine.  

Then please submit a 1-sentence summary of what you learned in this form.

If you're interested in reading an article from another Roman Catholic publication not listed here, please let me know.

This activity is due by class time on March 22.  If you submit it before class time on March 8, you get extra credit.  I will check the time stamp on the submissions to see when you submitted yours for the purposes of extra credit.

You also get extra credit if you read more than one article, so please note that by submitting a summary of each article you read.

Further enhanced extra credit opportunities are listed below.

Looking Ahead

We will continue to explore Lenten themes in class on March 8.

Please remember that on March 15, we are not attending class as usual.  Instead, we are going to attend the 6 PM evening Mass in Church.  It ends at approximately 6:30.  Some of the students in our class will have roles.

As usual, please feel free to contact me with questions, etc.

We remain connected as One Church, journeying with Jesus during Lent towards Jerusalem to join Him in dying and rising to New Life:

All my relations.

God's blessings,

Paul

P.S. Here are links to the videos on the Fraction Rite, the Communion Rite, and the Concluding Rites of Mass.

Our closing prayer was from 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

Enhanced Extra Credit Opportunities:

These activities are all optional.  They take longer than the usual activities to do, and they are great ways to enter into a spirit of prayer and grow in faith during Lent.

Watch the video of the March monthly Taize Prayer.

Watch the live or archived video of Lenten Vespers at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., each Sunday of Lent, aired live at 3 PM CT, until about 3:30 PM.

You can view a program to follow along at this link.

Attend Evening Prayer at Ascension on Wednesday evenings during Lent from 7:00-7:30 PM.

Attend any of the other Lenten prayer offerings at the parishes of Oak Park.

If you attended any liturgy on Ash Wednesday, you get extra credit.

If you do any of these, please submit a short summary of at least one sentence describing what you did in this form.  If you attended any of these events and I saw you there, you do not need to submit anything in that form.

Burning of palms from previous years after 10:30 Mass on Sunday, February 27