Lent 

Bishop O'Connell's Mid-Lenten Message:

They say “life is a marathon, not a quick sprint.”  I think that is true although the older you get, the faster the days seem to pass.  The same could be said of the holy season of Lent: it is a marathon to Easter!
 
Here we are past the mid-point of our Lenten journey with the finish line now in sight.  How has it been going?
 
Living our Catholic faith takes practice all the time.  And even when we fall, the true believer picks himself/herself up, dusts himself/herself off and carries on where he/she left off.  A marathon with a goal, a finish line in view!
 
So it is with the holy season of Lent, that annual time of penance and grace the Church gives us.  There are crosses and resurrections throughout these 40 days heading for the commemoration of Christ’ own cross and resurrection.  Perhaps we started off on Ash Wednesday with the very best of Lenten intentions and plans.  And we may have stumbled on the way.  But we shouldn’t give up on what we hoped and wanted to do for the Lord. Get up, dust yourself off and carry on!

Continue reading Bishop O'Connell's 2019 Mid-Lenten reflection here.

As with so many traditions in the Church, Lent has evolved over the years.  People began to emphasize more “giving” rather than “giving up.”  The sober and serious tone of the forty days of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday, became lighter and less intense.  Sure, the Church continued to accent the penitential nature of Lent but it did so in different ways, stressing things that were more positive rather than negative.  The obligation to sacrifice something was emphasized less as the most immediate item on the Lenten agenda.

I am a great believer in the “both/and” rather than the “either/or” approach to life.  And, so, for me Lent is a holy season of penance when I feel called, as a Catholic, by the very nature and purpose of Lent, to both “give up” and to “give” something.

In my own prayer and reflection as Bishop of the Diocese, I recognize my responsibility to guide the faithful of the Diocese --- clergy, religious and laity alike --- in living out our Christian life in pursuit of holiness.  Lent is a time to intensify the pursuit of holiness as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s own, passion, death and resurrection, the central mysteries of our Catholic faith.  And, so, together --- bishop and clergy, religious and laity --- let us focus our attention on the call to holiness that is at the heart of our Lenten journey and at the heart of our life’s journey.

Continue reading Bishop O'Connell's 2019 Lenten reflection here.