Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is observed as a universal day of fasting and abstinence from meat. Ashes, made from the burned palm of the previous Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, are imposed as a vivid reminder that we are all made from dust and that shortly we will return to dust again. Marked with ashes, we begin Lent with a determination to live the Christian life wholeheartedly as we await the day when we meet the Lord face to face. 

Masses: 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., Noon, 7:00 p.m. and  8:30 p.m. (Spanish) 

Ashes will be blessed and distributed at all the Masses on Ash Wednesday. 

 

The Season of Lent 

The 40 days of Lent are a period of penance for sins committed and of renewal of faith, hope and love. The first four weeks of Lent focus on our own conversion while the Fifth Week of Lent and Holy Week focus on the Passion and Death of the Lord Jesus. Lent is characterized by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These practices help us grow in the spiritual life, increase virtuous habits and exhibit self-discipline, which is necessary to live the Gospel. In the Scriptures, “forty days” indicates “a long time” and was not intended to be a strict mathematical calculation. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday, the start of the Sacred Triduum. The Sundays of Lent are, of course, Lenten days and do not interrupt the Lenten Season. 

Daily Mass 

8:00 a.m. each morning 

Lenten Regulations 

Fast – Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence from meat. Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 inclusive are bound by the law of fasting – limiting ourselves to one full meal and two lesser meals (with no eating between meals) as an expression of penance. 

Abstinence – Catholics aged 14 and older are bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent. 

Stations of the Cross 

6:00 p.m. on Fridays of Lent (Spanish) 

7:00 p.m. on the Fridays of Lent with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (English) 

The Light is ON for You.
Celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation
 

Each year the Archdiocese of Washington launches a pastoral initiative to encourage the Sacrament of Penance. On Wednesdays during Lent from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Confessions will be heard in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Fields. This program, begun in our own Archdiocese, has been imitated in dioceses throughout our nation and around the world and is very popular. Please make use of this wonderful opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Penance on Wednesdays during Lent. 

Almsgiving 

Catholic Relief Services “Rice Bowl” – Through CRS Rice Bowl, we hear stories from our brothers and sisters in need worldwide, and devote our Lenten prayers, fasting and gifts to change the lives of the poor. Each day of Lent, individuals are invited to use the Lenten Calendar—included with every CRS Rice Bowl—to guide their Lenten almsgiving. These daily almsgiving activities—for example, give 25 cents for every faucet found in your home—help families reflect on the realities of our brothers and sisters around the world and how they can be in solidarity during the Lenten season. 

Share in Hope Food Collection – sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. Bags will be available the 14th and 15th of March and the collection of food will be the following weekend, March 21st and 22nd. Kindly bring your donations of non-perishable food items to Saint Peter’s School. Plenty of volunteers will be on hand to assist you. Food will be used by Saint Peter’s Parish Saint Vincent de Paul Society or donated to local food pantries. 

 

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope (Sermo 6 de Quadragesima, 1-2: PL 54, 285-287) 

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude. 

But with the return of that season marked out in a special way by the mystery of our redemption, and of the days that lead up to the paschal feast, we are summoned more urgently to prepare ourselves by a purification of spirit. 

The special note of the paschal feast is this: the whole Church rejoices in the forgiveness of sins. It rejoices in the forgiveness not only of those who are then reborn in holy baptism but also of those who are already numbered among God's adopted children. 

Initially, men are made new by the rebirth of baptism. Yet there still is required a daily renewal to repair the shortcomings of our mortal nature, and whatever degree of progress has been made there is no one who should not be more advanced. All must therefore strive to ensure that on the day of redemption no one may be found in the sins of his former life. 

Dear friends, what the Christian should be doing at all times should be done now with greater care and devotion, so that the Lenten fast enjoined by the apostles may be fulfilled, not simply by abstinence from food but above all by the renunciation of sin. 

There is no more profitable practice as a companion to holy and spiritual fasting than that of almsgiving. This embraces under the single name of mercy many excellent works of devotion, so that the good intentions of all the faithful may be of equal value, even where their means are not. The love that we owe both God and man is always free from any obstacle that would prevent us from having a good intention. The angels sang: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. The person who shows love and compassion to those in any kind of affliction is blessed, not only with the virtue of good will but also with the gift of peace. 

The works of mercy are innumerable. Their very variety brings this advantage to those who are true Christians, that in the matter of almsgiving not only the rich and affluent but also those of average means and the poor are able to play their part. Those who are unequal in their capacity to give can be equal in the love within their hearts.