What is Lent for you?

What is Lent to you? What does it meant to enter into Lent and participate in this extraordinary season of our Church?

Fr. Jack Collins, CSP, walks in the streets of New York to interview individuals to share their own understanding of Lent or Ash Wednesday. Let's explore what people think of it.

Holy Saturday at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace

Bishop Larry Silva led the prayers and blessed each catechumen from several of our parishes who will be baptized and or confirmed tonight at Easter Vigil. Deacon Modesto assisted in the prayers. Fr. William Kunisch and Fr. John Berger were in attendance.

Morning prayers based on the Liturgy of the Hours was held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Music was created and cantored by Calvin Liu, Cathedral's music director.

Good Friday at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace

Holy Thursday at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace

Fr. John Berger, presider, with Fr. Marvin Samiano, JCL, Fr. Gordon Combs, Cap., Fr. Jim Danner and Deacon Eliot Cholymay

Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace Honolulu, Hawaii

Message to Priests this Lent 2011

His Eminence Mauro Piacenza

Esteemed Brothers,


This time of grace, which is given to us to live, calls us to a renewed conversion. The ministerial Priesthood is always new and through this gift the Lord Jesus is made present in our lives and, through our lives, in the lives of all men.

Conversion, for us Priests, above all else means to conform our lives more closely to the preaching that we offer daily to the faithful, becoming in this way ‘a piece of the living Gospel’ that everyone can read and accept. The foundation of that behaviour is, without doubt, the conversion of our own identity: we must convert ourselves to that what we are! The identity, welcomed and received sacramentally in our wounded humanity, demands the progressive confirmation of our hearts, our minds, our behaviours to everything that we are in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd that has been sacramentally imprinted in us.

We must enter into the Mysteries that we celebrate, especially in the most Holy Eucharist, and to allow ourselves to be formed by them. It is in the Eucharist that the Priest rediscovers his true identity! It is in the celebration of the Divine Mysteries that one can catch sight of ‘how’ to be a shepherd and ‘what’ is necessary to truly serve each other.

Source: Congregazione per il Clero

Getting Ready for Lent

Fr. Corapi discusses Lent:

Holy Saturday

Morning Prayer at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace

Bishop Larry Silva, with Deacon John Coughlin

my son, TJ, holds the book

Paula Manz, cantor

Music Director Calvin Liu, organist (not shown)

Blessing of the Catechumens

Passion of Christ - Holy Friday

At the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace...

Bishop Larry Silva, center

bearer of book, TJ, youngest among my 5 children

Bishop Larry knelt and kissed the cross

Passing of the cross

Getting ready for communion

Easter Triduum - Holy Thursday

Washing of the feet

Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace

Holy Thursday, March 1, 2010

Bishop Larry Silva, presider

Bishop Larry Silva, in his homily, stressed the importance of remembering Jesus at the Last Supper and correlated it to remembering of St. Damien who spent his life caring for those afflicted with leprosy; remembering our brothers and sisters in need, the abused and neglected; re-member those far from church, and bringing them back to the church.

It was a very solemn evening. The choir of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace did a great job at singing songs for Holy Week, which its members have sung for years, to commemorate the events in Jesus' life leading to his death and resurrection.

Our Lord Jesus, the Most High Priest, be praised!

Ash Wednesday

"...the Cross of Christ. This means that the ash is for us a symbol both of annihilation and of hope. As the Cross is the Christian symbol of salvation and hope of eternal life, so the cross of ashes on our forehead is for us an invitation to freedom from sin and new life." -Fr. John Speekman, Homilies and Reflections from Australia

Please visit Fr. John's reflection for today, Ash Wednesday.


I want to thank Fr. John Speekman for his generosity and patience. I would have liked very much to get back to blogging after two weeks from the time I last did an entry, but time proved to have its own pace. I simply could not keep up. I had a good sabbatical leave though. The best part of it was attending a retreat based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. I thank my Creator for his graciousness!

Fr. John Speekman, I loved your response to my interview questions! I have it all ready to publish after Ash Wednesday. All I have to do is click on "publish post". My deepest thanks to you.