LENT is about to begin

Here is the Exhortation read by the priest in the Ash Wednesday Mass just before we receive the imposition of ashes as a sign of our repentance, and an acknowledgment of our mortality:

Dear People of God:

The first Christians observed with great devotion
the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection,
and it became the custom of the Church
to prepare for them
by a season of penitence and fasting.

This season of Lent provided a time
in which converts to the Faith
were prepared for Holy Baptism. Keep reading . . .


And here is my MESSAGE for Lent, 2010:

I want to tell you about someone whose life was changed - a man in the depths of despair who found new life and hope. He had been a great musician. As a child he had overtaken all his teachers. He had begun composing in childhood, and by the time he was in his twenties he was fabulously wealthy - the highest paid composer in the world, packing in the crowds wherever he performed.

At the same time, he was rude, self-opinionated, heavy drinking, and foul-mouthed in three different languages! Keep reading . . .