03/08/08 8:00 am
The Catholic Church celebrates the extraordinary life of St. John of God on March 8. The saint lived through decades of sin and suffering before a profound conversion that led him to embrace poverty, humility and charity.
John was born in Portugal during the year 1495 to middle-class parents. Tragically, at the age of 8, he was kidnapped by a stranger and was later abandoned to homelessness in a remote part of Spain.
Read MoreWelcome to Ascension of Our Lord & St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Churches in historic Donaldsonville, Louisiana - A Eucharistic Community since 1772. Establishment of our Catholic faith community pre-dates Donaldsonville by 50 years, at a time when the US territory was served by missionary clergy of the Catholic Church in Europe.
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Lent is the 40-day season of prayer, fasting, & almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday & ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter. During Lent, we seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; we serve by giving alms, & we practice self-control through fasting. We are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ's will more faithfully. We recall the waters of baptism in which we were also baptized into Christ's death, died to sin & evil, & began new life in Christ.
Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practice self-discipline & fast in other ways throughout the season. Contemplate the meaning & origins of the Lenten fasting tradition in this reflection. In addition, giving of alms is one way to share God's gifts - not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time & talents. As St. John Chrysostom reminds us: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them & deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2446).
For more information visit: https://diobr.org/lent
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