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February 4, 2008 • VOL. 46, NO. 3 • Oakland,
CA
In
His Light
Lent: 40 days when we concentrate
on personal conversion
Dear Friends in Christ,
Lent is the first of several topics which I want to consider with you
in this week’s column. This year Easter comes early, on March 23,
so Ash Wednesday is just around the corner – February 6.
Dedicating 40 days to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s Passover
— Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday —
is a very ancient practice in the Church. There are a variety of things
we need to do in order to prepare for any feast or holiday, but the most
important form of preparation for a Christian festival is conversion.
Lent is just that: 40 days consecrated to conversion. The first Lenten
Preface eloquently expresses this point: “Each year you, [O Lord,]
give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery
with mind and heart renewed.”
This conversion agenda for Lent is most clearly required for our catechumens.
These 40 days are the final stage of their preparation for their reception
of the Sacraments of Initiations at the Easter Vigil. For them Lent is
an intense period of preparation for their Baptism, Confirmation and First
Holy Communion.
The progress of the catechumens toward their Baptism inspires us who are
already baptized. Lent is a most appropriate time to renew our commitment
to the Lord, to cast off once more the “Old Adam” of sin and
selfishness and to put on Christ anew.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly summarizes the program
we should follow in order to accomplish this change of heart: It is a
time for “spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, … voluntary
self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable
and missionary works)” (n. 1438).
I urge all of you to set aside some extended period for prayer and reflection
prior to Ash Wednesday: to examine your conscience in order to identify
the sinful habits you have taken on, to listen to the Holy Spirit as he
inspires you about how to change, and to resolve on the course of action
you will pursue over the weeks of Lent so that you will become more like
Christ.
Every such program should have three components: increased prayer, acts
of self-denial, and more intense application to works of solidarity and
love on behalf of others. The Church’s laws about fasting on Ash
Wednesday and Good Friday and about abstinence on the Fridays of Lent
are only a minimum of what is required for a solid effort.
I know that your priests, deacons and catechists will give you a lot of
useful “coaching” for this important effort. In this connection
I particularly recommend your reading the Lenten message of our Holy Father
Pope Benedict, available on the Vatican
web site, along with his messages for past years.
If I could add to all the wise counsel you receive, perhaps a final piece
of helpful advice is, as the advertisement says, “Just do it!”
Don’t let this great opportunity, these days of abundant grace,
pass you by. “Now is,” as St. Paul affirms, “the acceptable
time. Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
Next, I want to take notice of the news that seems to be on every third
billboard I pass as I drive through the East Bay — that Catholic
radio has come to our area. These signs announce that at 1260 AM, KSFB
(K-Saint Francis Bay) is broadcasting 24/7 the good news about Jesus Christ.
This station is part of network called “Immaculate Heart Radio.”
Their mission is, as they say on their web site (www.ihradio.org), to
be “a non-profit lay apostolate that operates a 24-hour Catholic
Radio Network in the Western United States. [They] are dedicated to sharing
the heart of the Christian faith and changing lives through radio airwaves.”
I thank God for the dedicated efforts of the lay men and women who have
worked so hard, and overcome some almost impossible challenges, in order
to bring a Catholic radio station to the Bay Area. They have heard the
call of the late Pope John Paul the Great “to launch out into the
deep” for the sake of the New Evangelization.
Their accomplishment is one of the fruits of renewed lay involvement in
the Church’s apostolate envisioned by the Fathers of the Second
Vatican Council. I hope you will take time to tune in the broadcasts on
1260 AM, KSFB. And visit their web site for more information about the
station and its programming.
Finally, I want to talk about retreat — both the Pope’s and
mine. First about mine: I will be in the middle of it when you read this
in The Voice. This year once again I will be joining the bishops of Northern
California for an eight-day private directed retreat.
When I came to Oakland I learned that the bishops of our state had a long-standing
commitment to such a serious shared effort to grow in the Christian life.
I have been deeply edified by their example and find great joy in this
common experience of grace.
Please keep all of us in your prayers, asking the Lord that these days
of retreat will bear good fruit in our lives, and be assured of my prayers
for all of you and your loved ones while I am on retreat.
And soon, the Holy Father will begin his week of retreat, on the First
Week of Lent, according to a long-standing practice. Let us all be one
with him in prayer, so that he will receive from the Lord the grace and
strength he needs to serve as our Father in Christ.
Previous "In His Light" Columns by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron
