Lent 2022 at Saint Mary of the Lake and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish

LENTEN PUBLICATION

We invite you to participate in one or more of our Lenten activities,  to learn more please view our 2022 Lenten Publication! For more information or question on any events and liturgies please contact the parish office at 773-280-7700.

PRAYER

"Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger.
Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises us to Heaven.” - Ephrem the Syria 

FASTING

“Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy;
if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others.
​If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself.” - Saint Peter Chrysologus 

LENTEN REGULATIONS ON FASTING

​While fasting is traditionally a personal and private act of faith, there are days that the Church invites us all to fast as a community. We invite you to fast along with all of the members of the Church every Friday of Lent.

1. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence in the United States. (All Fridays of the year are days of penance in some form).
2. The obligation of abstinence (refraining from eating meat) begins at the age of 14. The law of fasting (limiting oneself to one full meal and two lighter meals) obliges all between the ages of 18-59. No one should consider this obligation lightly.
3. Those individuals who have a medical condition in which fasting may be considered harmful are not obliged to fast, but should perform some other act of penance or charity.
4. Pastors and parents are to see to it that minors, though not bound by the law of fast and abstinence, are educated in the authentic sense of penance and encouraged to do acts of penance suitable to their age.
5. All members of the Christian Faithful are encouraged to do acts of penance and charity during the Lenten season beyond what is prescribed by the law.
6. As a general rule, a request for a dispensation from the obligation of abstinence on Fridays of Lent will not be considered unless some serious reason is present.

Please note that attendance at social events, banquets, wedding rehearsals or receptions, or funeral wakes are not considered sufficient reason to request a dispensation. 

ALMSGIVING

“He who gives alms in imitation of God does not discriminate between the wicked and the virtuous,
​the just and the unjust when providing for men's bodily needs." - Saint Maximus the Confessor 

2022 ALMSGIVING PROJECT

For Lent 2022 the recipients of our communal almsgiving will be two organizations in the Amazon whose missions are to provide quality education to indigenous young people, especially girls. These two missions are the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramon in Peru and the Apostolic Vicariate of Puyo in Ecuador. We invite you to use the collection can in your Lenten Prayer Kit and return it with your donations on Easter Sunday. 100% of monies raised through the Lenten donation cans will be sent to these two missions in Ecuador and Peru.