Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a time of sacrifice. I don’t know about you, but self-denial has never come especially easy for me. But I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it? These forty days are a desert. A period of time set aside as preparation. We are preparing for the most awe-inspiring time of the year. Yes, Christmas is beautiful, but Easter? Whoa! Everything , the Old Testament and the entire Gospel story , comes down to this. A King who comes to save His people… by dying? It...

Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, and yet it is one of the most attended Masses of the calendar year. What about it draws people in? Is it the solemnness? The reminder of our short lives on earth that sticks with us from childhood and prompts us each year to remember? The smell of the burning palms? The black mark on our foreheads, a tangible sign to ourselves and to those around us that we are but dust, and to dust we shall return? It hits hard. As it should. Lent does not...

Have you seen the news? It seems every day we become aware of new horrors. I long for the pre-plastic days knowing only what happens in your little neighborhood. Because the hardships within our own communities seem already enough to bear. But with global catastrophes at our fingertips, with images flooding our eyes, how can we be expected to sleep well at night? Especially, when we know it is our duty as Christians to help those in need. But when the need is so great, and the horror so...