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March
2004 |
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40
days of fasting, praying, almsgiving |
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How
do today’s families observe Lent? |
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At my Catholic elementary
school more than 30 years ago, the coming of Lent prompted
a question kids often bandied about the playground or
neighborhood families sometimes discussed around their
dinner tables: What are you giving up?
Giving something up for Lent, be it candy or a favorite
television program, was — and often still is —
a familiar part of the season for Catholics, especially
children. The act was, as teachers and parents explained,
a self-sacrifice that would recreate, in some small sense,
the supreme sacrifice Jesus made. It was a way to show
penitence in preparation for the renewal of an Easter
people.
By the time I was in college, however, the practice of
giving something up had come under scrutiny. How much
of a sacrifice was forgoing a daily fast-food lunch during
Lent, some wondered, if you saved enough money in the
process to splurge on a new pair of shoes or tickets to
a baseball game?
Gradually, on a parish, diocesan, and even national level,
Lenten programs took a new direction — looking outward
rather than inward.
Through one such program I recall at my home parish, dubbed
“Love Loaves,” each family received a plastic
bank shaped like a loaf of bread. When family members
gave up something for Lent — like a chocolate bar
during an afternoon coffee break, for example —
they were asked to put the money they would have spent
into the bread bank. When Lent ended, the accumulated
money was given back to the parish, earmarked for a particular
charity, making the personal sacrifice a real one.
Focus on prayer, fasting,
almsgiving
Recognizing Lent as a season that prepares Catholics to
grow in their understanding of Easter, the church has
long focused on three particular practices of preparation:
prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For a growing number of
families, those Lenten practices have evolved to become
even more meaningful.
Retired Milwaukee archdiocesan priest and author Fr. Ed
Eschweiler noted in the Ash Wednesday Gospel reading,
Jesus speaks about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Fasting,
Fr. Eschweiler said, is often tied to almsgiving, and
at the parishes in which he’s served over the years,
such programs as Love Loaves, GDA (Give the Difference
Away), and Operation Rice Bowl were used for fasting/almsgiving
during Lent.
“All of these show ways that fasting can have not
only a personal effect — like spiritually pumping
iron — but can be helpful to others,” he said.
“Ultimately fasting can be seen as a participation
in the Paschal mystery of Jesus, into which we are baptized.
Just as by the death of Jesus, not only he, but all of
us are raised to new life, so by our dying — fasting
— not only we but others can experience new life.”
Many parishes participate in Lenten programs like Operation
Rice Bowl, developed by the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief
Services.
According to the Milwaukee archdiocesan Office of Human
Concerns, 115 schools, parishes and other organizations
participated in Operation Rice Bowl last year.
The 29-year-old program gets participants involved, through
daily scriptural reflections and activities, in recognizing
and helping to alleviate poverty. Collected donations
are split between local diocesan programs and CRS projects
worldwide.
Operation Rice Bowl looks at areas where CRS has established
relief efforts — for instance, countries featured
this year include Pakistan, Honduras and Burundi —
and while program activities focus on prayer, fasting
and almsgiving, they also attempt to reach further, giving
participants profiles of residents in each country and
some information about the challenges they face.
“We added a learning component to help people understand
how their giving can help their brothers’ and sisters’
needs around the world,” said Beth Martin, Operation
Rice Bowl program officer for Catholic Relief Services.
“We hope that it helps people grow in solidarity
with the poor, both locally and around the world. We want
to make the program a little more meaningful — instead
of just giving money, we’re sharing the stories
of people that your contributions are helping overseas,
so you gain a little bit more of a personal connection
and understanding.”
Parish-wide programs encourage families
Frequently, parishes find these programs a good way to
get families involved in the season. St. Matthias Parish,
Milwaukee, will use Operation Rice Bowl this year and,
like other projects it has used in Lents past, it will
be a parish-wide effort, involving parishioners, but also
students in the parish school and religious education
classes.
Ideas
for family
Lenten activities: |
Looking for more Lenten
activities to do with your family? New this year
to Catholic Relief Services is an on-line participation
in Operation Rice Bowl, which provides weekly e-mailed
reflections on scriptural readings during Lent and
an opportunity to make a donation to the program.
Check out <www.catholicrelief.org>
for more information.
Our Sunday Visitor’s Web site, <www.osv.com/lent>,
has a wealth of Lenten ideas, including seasonal
recipes, prayers and activities for families and
children.
Also full of ideas is “My Catholic Lent and
Easter Activity Book” by Jennifer Galvin (Paulist
Press, 2003), with reproducible pages that make
it ideal for classroom studies as well as home use. |
Last year, the parish participated in The Heifer Project,
which raises money for Third World needs in the form of
agricultural resources, such as cows.
“It was huge success,” said Sharon Durski,
parish nurse and human concerns committee member at St.
Matthias. “We raised over $24,000, and the children
(from the school and religious education programs) raised
almost a third of the monies themselves. The whole community
was involved and we had hoped to see the community building
that did occur.”
“It’s not just the school, or the Christian
formation program, or the high school program —
we try to do this as a joint effort,” said Jenni
Oliva, youth minister at St. Matthias. “(We ask)
how can we do this as a whole parish instead of every
(organization) doing their own project for Lent? Why can’t
we all do this? It’s actually kind of cool to see
the whole parish trying to work together for it.”
Brenda Cline, director of religious education at St. Joseph
Parish, Grafton, believes incorporating Lenten activities
throughout the parish can create strong, meaningful bonds
for parents and their children.
“It allows the families, rather than just individuals,
to engage in a project,” Cline said. “So,
for example, if the kids are hearing about this in the
day school or Christian formation classes or youth ministry
classes and they’re bringing it home, and the parents
have heard about this in whatever group or committee they
attend — and in effect, just about everybody hears
about it at the liturgy or reads about it in the bulletin
— it builds this sort of united front. It gives
families something to discuss, it gives them something
that they can actually do together.”
Besides offering parishioners and students opportunities
for prayer during Lent through weekday liturgies and services,
Cline said both groups can get involved in almsgiving
through various outreach programs, which over the years
have included Repairers of the Breach, a homeless shelter
in Milwaukee; Casa Maria, a Milwaukee Catholic Worker
House for women and children; and an ongoing ministry
with the meal program at St. Benedict the Moor Parish,
also in Milwaukee.
St. Joseph also often incorporates its relationship with
Los Toros, its sister parish in the Dominican Republic,
into parish life, Cline said. One Lent, the two parishes
shared weekly reflections on the Sunday readings at weekend
Masses. The sister parish was also discussed in the classrooms
of the day school and the Christian formation program.
Popular tradition
gets families involved
Cline has discovered a popular new Lenten tradition at
St. Joseph that involves baskets set up in the parish
gathering room; each basket contains slips of paper with
ideas for family activities: collecting canned goods for
a food pantry, checking out The Heifer Project’s
Web site and making a donation, or preparing a meal at
Casa Maria.
“The activities include everything from donating
money, to praying for someone, to actually giving of your
time, whatever people might be comfortable with,”
she said. “Families search through the basket and
find something that they can do together.”
Other parishes find additional ways to bring families
together during Lent, from retreats to special programs.
Jane Delfield, director of religious education at Kenosha’s
St. Mary Parish, said Lenten activities will include small
faith sharing groups, a play, and a talk by Auxiliary
Bishop Richard J. Sklba on March 3. At St. Alphonsus,
Greendale, a parish-wide soup and bread meal was offered
before Ash Wednesday services. Also planned each Wednesday
during Lent are stations of the cross presented by Christian
formation or parish school students, as well as speakers
on a number of Lenten topics.
Recycled Christmas
tree is symbolic
In Pell Lake this Lent, St. Mary Parish is using a diocesan
program developed in Saginaw, Mich., that focuses on forgiveness
and relationships with God and others.
A cross, fashioned from the stripped trunk of last year’s
Christmas tree, was set up in the church sanctuary earlier
this month, said Marilyn Kingston, parish coordinator.
On the Sunday prior to Ash Wednesday, candles were distributed
to parishioners, who were asked not to light them, but
instead keep them visible during Lent, and consider the
unlit candles in relation to darkness and sin. At Easter,
the candles will be returned, lighted, and placed around
the cross.
The cross reflects not only parishioners’ relationships
with God and others, Kingston said, but its Christmas
tree trunk also “connects the story from the birth
of Jesus to his death on Good Friday, through his resurrection
on Easter Sunday.”
She hopes the program, as well as such parish activities
as special stations of the cross services for teens and
adults and an annual Seder meal, spur reflection and discussion
among parishioners. Additionally, she said, the parish
puts a Lenten emphasis on service for its religious education
students, like the program that matches teens and area
nursing home residents.
In the past, John Beinecke, a St. Mary parishioner who
is also involved with the local St. Vincent de Paul Society,
has helped religious education students run bingo games
at a Burlington nursing home. This year, several high
school students will interview local nursing home residents
and write about them, he said. The students’ stories,
accompanied by the residents’ photographs, will
be displayed in the church.
Beinecke believes teens enjoy the personal contact with
seniors, and the experience often teaches them to recognize
others’ needs, even something as simple as having
someone to talk with.
“This is a good thing to do any time, but especially
at Lent, rather than sitting there and reflecting what’s
being done wrong, I think maybe it’s a question
of reflecting on what you can do that’s right. It’s
more positive,” he said.
Encourage service
year-round
For some religious educators, a limited number of class
hours or a busy spring schedule of preparing students
for the sacraments of reconciliation, first Eucharist
or confirmation, doesn’t allow any time for specific
Lenten projects, although a few, like Bob Nolan, say they
promote an awareness of the liturgical year in their classes.
Nolan, a catechist for the religious education program
at St. Joseph in Grafton since 1993, said that although
some projects — like a Holy Thursday lock-in for
middle school students — occur during Lent, service
projects aren’t limited to that season.
“We make a conscious effort to try to offer activities
at different times in the year, so that it’s not
just seen as a Lenten activity instead of who we are and
how we should act as Christians,” he said.
Elaine Halladay and her husband, parishioners at St. Joseph,
share that perspective with their three sons, ages 13,
15, and 16.
“My husband and I really encourage
our kids all throughout the year to be charitable and
volunteer a lot,” she said. The volunteering often
includes regularly visiting nursing home residents or
even transporting them to Sunday Mass.
Yet Halladay said her family still views Lent as a special
spiritual time. Each year, she sets up a hand-carved wooden
sculpture — purchased years ago — based on
the Leonardo da Vinci painting, “The Last Supper.”
The piece, she said, serves as a reminder of the season.
“For my children, my hope is that they can, through
Lent, imitate how Christ lived on earth, so that they
may be more Christ-like.”
Halladay said her family also follows church guidelines
on fasting. And as a self-described “candy fiend,”
Halladay added that she — and other family members
— also give things up during Lent.
Chris Squires, a parishioner and catechist at St. Mary
in Pell Lake, has tried to put a spin on giving things
up by becoming more cognizant of her day-to-day actions
instead.
“You do things all the time — repeatedly —
that you know you shouldn’t, and you don’t
even think about why you shouldn’t do them,”
she said. “Maybe during Lent, you should just try
to concentrate more, be more aware of the things you’re
doing that you shouldn’t be — and try harder
to make those things better.”
Finding value in sacrifice
Still, she finds value in sacrifice. When her 17-year-old
son was much younger, she would help him to find extra
ways to help his grandfather or dad during Lent. It’s
an attitude she brings to the first graders in her religious
education classes.
“We talk about the idea that some people give up
things and some people give things for Lent, like instead
of giving up chocolate, you clean your mom’s kitchen
every week,” she said. “Sometimes it’s
not that hard to do, to give something up. But to give
something, it might be a bit more difficult.”
Even young children can benefit from the lessons Lent
teaches, Corinne Nordigian, another St. Mary parishioner
and the mother of three children, ages 3, 6, and 9, has
found. “You have to make it more personal to them,
at their level,” she said.
“When we give up something, it’s usually a
special thing, not an everyday thing. I’m not big
on giving sweets to my kids and they don’t get a
lot of them, but during Lent, they get nothing,”
Nordigian said.
“It teaches them sacrifice. Even the 3-year-old
knows she’s giving something up for God.”
“We do encourage, as part of the education, that
fasting is keeping away from those things that keep us
away from God,” said Cline about the Christian formation
students at St. Joseph. “I know that the kids are
still in the practice of giving up candy, of giving up
toys. We help them realize that maybe it’s about
giving up negative behavior, and focusing on some of those
internal things they can change.
“(As Catholics) we talk about how we prepare for
Lent,” she said. “I think it’s Lent
that prepares us.” |
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