Despite the exceptionally cold winter we’re experiencing this year, I’m still happy to live in a place where there are four distinct seasons. The natural seasons alert us to the passage of time as we change the way we live in response to change in weather. But there are other kinds of seasons too. About a month ago, I remember reading articles about the growing popularity of something called “Dry January,” a new quasi-season observed by abstaining from alcohol during the first month of the year. It is encouraged as a way of “detoxing” from the excesses of December. As Catholics, who observe most of December as the season of Advent and at least half of January as the season of Christmastime, Dry January seems as appropriate as wearing a Santa hat on the Fourth of July. It is perhaps too much to hope that “Dry December” might take off, making everyone bright-eyed and eager for the beginning of Christmas on December 25 instead of bleary-eyed and desperate for it all to end.
Anyway, this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent. Lent is an ancient liturgical season, set aside as a time of asceticism and sobriety. It is also a time of more intense prayer during which we examine our consciences, remembering that Our Lord suffered and died for our sins to save us from the power of death. During Lent, the Church provides some standard disciplines that all Catholics are to take up, such as the fasts we must observe on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as well as abstaining from meat on all Fridays in Lent.
Here in the parish, we are offering additional ways to observe Lent. If you haven’t yet decided on a Lenten discipline, or if you want to do something in addition to giving up sweets or alcohol, you might consider taking advantage of the various programs we have scheduled in the upcoming weeks. One great thing to take up in Lent is attending Stations of the Cross, which we pray together very Friday evening at 7pm at the Church of St. Cecilia, except on Friday 3/13, when we will have Stations at 6pm, followed by a parish pasta dinner in McDermott Hall. We also will have our annual Lenten mission the evenings of February 22-24 in St. Cecilia Church from 7-8pm. This year, we have invited Fr. Richard Veras to lead the mission. He’s an excellent speaker, so be sure to put those nights in your calendar. As in past years, the Monday of Holy Week (3/30) is “Reconciliation Monday” in the Diocese of Bridgeport. Confessions will be available at St. Cecilia’s and St. Mary’s on Elm St. that day from 3-9pm. If you wish to avoid the long confession lines that day, however, you might take advantage of our regular confession times in the parish: Wednesdays 7-9pm and Sundays from 8:15-9am at St. Cecilia Church, and Saturdays from 3-3:45pm at St. Gabriel Church. If it has been a while since you’ve been to confession, let this year’s Lent be the one in which you return to the sacrament. Finally, there is the Holy Triduum, which consists of the three most sacred liturgies of the year: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.
Let’s pray for a good Lent this year, that by changing the way we live during this holy season we might give Christ room to change our lives.
posted 2/14/26
The Parish of St. Cecilia-St. Gabriel 