CATHOLIC CHURCH IN EASTERN EUROPE: Your contributions to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe support the spreading of the Word of God over large territories, building and developing parishes in distant lands, education for the faithful and scholarships for future Church leaders, as well as services for the homeless, the elderly, children and families in need. The Collection is taken up on Ash Wednesday. OPERATION RICE BOWL: In just a few days, your Lenten journey will begin. Catholic Relief Services invites you to make this journey in solidarity with your global family, and Operation Rice Bowl makes this easy and enriching. It is a journey of prayer, fasting, learning and giving. To be Catholic means to be linked not just to our local communities, but also to our global community. Your participation in Operation Rice Bowl during this Lenten season will challenge you to expand your own horizons. You will be provoked to alleviate suffering and combat injustice. Together, we can induce tremendous change: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” LENT 2008 The spiritual time of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 6th. Lent precedes and prepares for Easter. Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God . Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our patterns, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we've done and failed to do, and to be generous to those in need. St. James Parish offers you resources to assist you in Lent 2008. Taking some time to get ready for Lent will ensure that you aren't going to miss Ash Wednesday and the first week or two of Lent. “GIVING UP SOMETHING” “What would help me grow in freedom?” That's the question to ask. For many of us, the choice may not be to give something up, but to add something to our daily lives during Lent. We may commit ourselves to extra prayer time, to making the Stations of the Cross, or helping out when needed. The whole desire we should have is to use these means to help us grow closer to our Lord and prepare ourselves to truly celebrate Easter. Pick up a copy of What Am I Doing for Lent This Year? A Workbook that presents Lent as an opportunity for renewal (at entrance to the church) PRAYING: Lent is the time to start new patterns of prayer. Perhaps I haven't been praying at all. This is a great time to choose to begin. I may want to give myself some time alone to read the Bible readings for the day, and just talk with the Lord about those readings or about the stuff of the day. I may choose to go to Mass each day during Lent. I may choose to get to church on Sunday, just 15 minutes earlier, so I can reflect a bit. Lent may be a time I would want to choose to start to write down my day to day spiritual reflections. Pick up a copy of the book : Sacred Space for Lent 2008- Daily Bible Readings and Reflections and The Bible and You - A guide to the Bible (at entrance to the church) PRACTICING PENANCE: Penance is spiritual therapy for the healing I desire. The Lord always forgives us. Lent is a wonderful time to name what sinful, unhealthy, self-centered patterns need changing and to act against them by coming up with a strategy. Going to Confession is a way to start. All Catholics who have reached the age of reason must confess their serious sins in the Sacrament of Penance at least once a year. FASTING: All Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are bound also to observe the Law of Fast on the following days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting, that is, eating less, involves limiting oneself to a single full meal and avoiding food between meals. Lighter nourishment may be taken on two other occasions in the course of the day. It is also a means of uniting with millions in our world who have little or nothing to eat. A great help is to use Operation Rice Bowl - Helping Catholic Relief Services ABSTINENCE: All Catholics who have reached their 14th birthday are bound to abstain totally from meat on the following days: Ash Wednesday, all Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday. To abstain is to not eat meat. EASTER DUTY: Catholics must also receive Holy Communion at least once each year during the Easter season, which this year extends from February 10th, the First Sunday of Lent, until Trinity Sunday, May 18th. SPECIAL NOTE: The Memorial of St. Patrick (March 17) is not observed liturgically this year because it falls within Holy Week. The Solemnity of St. Joseph has been transferred to Saturday, March 15th and the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord has been transferred to Monday, March 31st.