Pastoral Notes for the 1st Sunday of Lent, March 2, 2025, Year C
Participating in the liturgy and the liturgical seasons helps to form us in our faith. Lent is such a time when we enter, with Jesus, in a 40-day spiritual journey. Through prayer, fasting, and giving alms (extra support for the poor), we go on a desert-like journey as individuals and as an ecclesia (church). Lent is not only my personal preparation for Easter but also the whole Church’s preparation for celebrating the Resurrection at Easter. Jesus was confronted with temptations just as we are, and he is sympathetic to our weaknesses and faults. In the first reading, Moses reminds the Hebrew people that God heard their cries of affliction and led them to freedom through their desert journey. Moses then offers the first fruits of the harvest in gratitude to God who has loved them so much. What should God’s mercy evoke within us? Moses gives us the answer: gratitude, and the actions associated with a grateful heart! In this Holy Year of Hope, let us cultivate gratitude as our response to the loving mercy of God by offering our prayers, our fasting, and being generous to the poor during these Lenten days.
Call to Action
- Take the opportunity to catechize the parish community about the three ancient Christian practices of the Lenten Season: Prayer, Fasting, and Alms-giving. Follow up during the week using your GC Smart Text or Email, reminding them to grow in the Christian life by remembering these practices.
- This Sunday is the day in most dioceses when the Bishop or his delegate receives the Catechumens and Candidates at the Rite of Election for the OCIA (formerly known as the RCIA). Be sure your community is praying for the Elect as they prepare for Baptism, the Profession of Faith, Holy Communion, and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil or during the Easter Season. Introduce them by name at Lenten masses and publicize them in our bulletin or newsletter.
- In your GC Dashboard, in the Communications Portal, you have access to free templates you can use for Pew engagement cards. You can use these cards to gain information about your visitors, guests, and those who are curious about your church. Ask them to text your parish’s keyword to your GC texting phone number and take a brief moment to fill out the information. Then, be sure to follow up with them the following week! Follow-up makes all the difference!
- Ask your families to make a family Lenten calendar at home and to offer their Lenten practices of Prayer, Fasting, and Alms-giving together!
