Brothers and Sisters, we begin again our lenten journey. We turn our hearts and our minds once again to the Lord and proclaim that we are only dust without Him. We are dead if we do not have His Spirit at work living in us and giving us life. During this time of repentance, purification, and conversion of hearts, we are asked to look within and see what aspects of our lives Christ has not yet entered. Being honest with ourselves, we ask Jesus to be Lord of our life COMPLETELY. He is the Savior. He is the Lord. Nothing else in life will give us the peace, healing, joy, and life we seek. That is why we are asked to pray, fast, and give alms. For in these practices, we come to know this truth. We are always desperately looking for things to give us peace, healing, and joy. We look to things, gadgets, and a number of different escapes to be our "savior" or to give us life. And we find that when we turn to these things and not Christ, we get deeper in a hole of loneliness, alienation, and despair. But today we turn back. We turn back to the SAVIOR, the real SAVIOR, the only SAVIOR who can bring us what we need. We turn away from sin and become more faithful to the gospel, the good news of our Lord.


Today is Ash Wednesday which is a day of Fasting. We are asked to eat only one meal and two smaller meals which should not equal the one meal we partake of. During the Fridays of Lent, we are called to abstain from eating meat. And I get this question a lot surprisingly: is chicken MEAT? =) Yes, chicken IS in fact MEAT! Do not eat chicken or any other meat during the Fridays of Lent.

May God fill your hearts and your lives with the grace necessary to truly enter into the spirit of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Pasch in the Easter Triduum.

Peace and God bless,
Fr. Francis Mendoza


*Click here to see the regulations for lent