It is the First Sunday of Lent and we have set out on our Lenten pilgrimage toward Easter. Lent, as we know, has a two-fold character: 1) to prepare by purification and enlightenment those who will be fully initiated at Easter (by means of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist) and 2) for those of us who are already baptized and reborn in Christ to prepare by works of penance to renew that cleansing grace once given us in our Holy Baptism. Let us all therefore set out with resolve to climb this mountain toward Easter!
Everything we do in Lent is marked by this journeying or pilgrimage context. In this installment I’ll provide an overview of these pilgrimages covering the whole season of Lent (these Forty Days) and look some details of this First Week of Lent.
The whole of the season of Lent is like a short course in salvation history. In the First Readings of each Sunday of Lent we hear about the pilgrimage of the chosen people and open our souls to make a parallel journey. We being with the 1) covenant God made with all living things through Noah which is a recapitulation of creation itself but here is filled with the waters of God’s cleansing mercy. Next week we hear the foundational 2) covenant God makes with Abraham our father in faith through his sacrifice and trust in God. On the Third Sundy of Lent we hear the central act of the Old Testament, 3) the covenant God makes with his chosen people through Moses at Mount Sinai following their Exodus and crossing of the Red Sea and before their wandering in the desert for forty years thirsting for God. The story of salvation history continues the subsequent week when we hear on Laetare Sunday about 4) God taking up his home in the Temple as it is dedicated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem by King David’s son, King Solomon. Finally, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear about 5) God’s promise to establish a New Covenant in every human heart from the Prophet Jeremiah who is the great prophet of hope for the return of the captives from Exile. Studying The Bible Timeline (which is now part of the Ascension app) would be appropriate to do during Lent to expand on this “short course” as we seek to meet God in prayerful meditation on his mighty deeds in salvation history. You might, each week, make a symbol representing each of the covenants and enthrone them in your prayer corner. Also, check out: https://youtu.be/6v4jKkFj3TI
In the Gospels of each Sunday of Lent we hear about Jesus’ pilgrimage towards Jerusalem. Each week brings him one step closer to his enthronement on the Cross and reveals Jesus, true God and true man, as the faithful one who fulfills the covenants which sinful humanity alone had been unable to keep (see above). We start off this Sunday with 1) Jesus’ temptation in the desert to which he retreated for forty days after his Baptism at the River Jordan—historically on the very spot where Joshua lead the people into the Promised Land and where Elijah was take up into heaven. On this First Sunday of Lent we invoke the intercession of all the saints to journey with us and with the elect, those men and women who will be initiated into Christ at Easter. I will be accompanying Josiah, an O’Dea sophomore, on Saturday as he offers his name for Enrollment and is numbered among the elect by Archbishop Etienne during this Rite of Election. Recall that this experience of the Elect, as they journey from outside the Church toward the font of rebirth, is the origin of the season of Lent. So next week, on the Second Sunday of Lent, 2) Jesus calls these chosen ones to come away (retreat) with him, to be set apart (made holy), and with them we witness Jesus transfigured (see but not yet partake of this same glory). Jesus thus gives his disciples—and us—our reason and hope to set out on this journey with him as he makes his way toward Jerusalem, his destiny. This is a special foretaste for the elect before being driven further into their three spiritual trials. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent switch from Mark (Year B) to the Gospel of John (used on most of our highest holy days and in this year because Mark is so much shorter!) to hear Jesus’ teachings prophesying his own death as the 3) Temple destroyed to be rebuilt, 4) his being “lifted up” like the healing snake in the desert, and 5) the grain of wheat buried to rise again. Jesus’ journey thus fulfilled and retraced the contours of the chosen people’s journey of salvation history and makes that same story of his Paschal Mystery—his life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension—open to us.
On these Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent the Elect (people preparing for Christian initiation) undergo their Scrutinies. These are minor exorcisms meant to uncover and heal whatever is impure (brought into the light) and strengthen whatever is good and upright (bearing the light to others). It is from their experience of purification and enlightenment that the whole character or flavor Lenten penitential practices derive and by which each of us is invited to grow into closer union with Christ. The experience of these examinations prepare not only the Elect for Holy Baptism but they also invite each of us to examine our hearts and make a good confession. Our penance and absolution, healing prescriptions given us, set us free from the fetters of sin, unbind us from shame, and invite us to enter into the promised land given us, so that we can be a Temple cleansed for the presence of God to dwell in us as we share in Holy Communion. While these Forty Days first emerged to train the Elect, Lent is indeed “the very acceptable time” each year to renew our life in Christ through ongoing conversion, turning anew (repentance, metanoia) to seek his face.
During Lent the sanctoral, the calendar of feasts and saint’s memorials, has fewer entries so that we can spend time with the season of Lent itself. In a way it is like the Church is telling us that it is enough to slow down, pay close attention to this short course of salvation history, how it is fulfilled in Christ, and open our hearts to be made participants in his very life through our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As I mentioned last week, I find that the CRS Rice Bowl and recipe calendar is a wonderful way to bring this down to the earth and keep it front and center on our dining room table. One notable exception this week is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter on February 22. While St. Peter and St. Paul share a solemnity in June, we noted last month the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25) and here we keep a uniquely Petrine Feast of the Chair of St. Peter (February 22). This is not so much about a piece of sacred furniture—although one can visit the relic of the cathedra of St. Peter in his namesake basilica in the Vatican in Rome. This feast, celebrated in Rome since at least the fourth century, is rather about the rock of St. Peter’s Confession and of the unity of Church as safeguarded by the successors of St. Peter, the popes. While my family has not done any special home celebrations for this day it might be a good day to explore the importance of the pope, bishops, and apostolic succession especially in the writing of Pope St. Leo the Great which we find in the Office of Readings for the feast. The subsequent day, Friday, February 23, is the memorial of St. Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John and friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch. The written account of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, who was bishop in Smyrna until he was executed for his Christian faith in 155, is oldest record of martyrdom outside the New Testament itself.
One of the fruitful prayer practices to which the Catholic faithful have turned and which is important to keep in your family’s devotions during Lent is the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis). Originating in two distinct practices of pilgrimage, one in Rome and another in the Holy Land, the Stations of the Cross didn’t take its final form with fourteen stations (stops) until the 17th century. This is a helpful overview from Fr. Casey Cole, OFM at his YouTube channel Catholicism in Focus: https://youtu.be/KR5hXcwELVY During the Lenten season we recall Jesus’ pilgrimaging from Galilee to Jerusalem (as, for example, we hear in each of the various verses of Cooney’s “Jerusalem, My Destiny”) and, then in micro focus during Holy Week, his journey from the gate of Jerusalem to mount his throne on Calvary, before his final journey from the grave to ascend on high. Christians have for nearly two thousand years made pilgrimage to the Holy Land to retrace the steps of Jesus as he bore his Cross and our sins along through the streets of Jerusalem which became known as the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sadness) or Via Crucis. Christians who couldn’t make a pilgrimage or who had and wanted to bring home something of the experience they had on pilgrimage began processing from one church to another in their hometown. In Rome this gave rise to the practice of stational churches. Every day in Lent in the Roman Missal we find a heading “ad stationem S. thus-and-such” indicating at which distinct church the pontifical (pope’s) Mass would be celebrated that day. The procession would begin at the church where the pontifical Mass was held the day before and then go to the Church of the day. During the pandemic The Catholic Traveler, an American convert to Catholicism and pilgrimage leader in Rome, took his daughters to each of the stational churches and recorded YouTube videos of the churches. If you want to follow along the Roman stational churches check out
Lent really is indeed a good time to make pilgrimages to different churches. In the Middle Ages lengthy pilgrimages to the shrines of saints were sometimes even given as penances. This Lent might be the “very acceptable time” for you and your family to visit the churches with whom St. John Vianney has been named Partners in the Gospel: St. Patrick and Holy Cross in Tacoma. Or maybe to stop and pray at the site of the former St. Patrick Church in Dockton and read about the church bell now in Dockton Park? Or you might visit the oldest extant Catholic church in our diocese, the Steilacoom mission, or schedule a visit to the St. Peter Mission on Suquamish lands (where Chief Seattle is interred), the mission in Toledo (with the Catholic ladder), a tour of St. James Cathedral in Seattle or the protocathedral in Vancouver, or even Calvary of Holy Rood cemeteries. What other churches might you add to the list? Perhaps a parish church where you were baptized or received your subsequent sacraments where you can share with others how God has been at work in your life? Maybe there is a holy site where you encountered Jesus in a profound or intimate way which plays an important part in your own salvation history? Perhaps it was at a retreat center or school chapel that God revealed himself to you and where you can return to give thanks?
Finally, I have heard from a few of you that the movie suggestions I have given are welcomed but I’ve also heard that I ought to have included a clearer caveat to preview anything I mention (not even so much recommend!) before watching with your family as not every film which wrestles with faith is appropriate for all ages. That said, I have for many years enjoyed watching the Russian film Ostrov (The Island, 2006) near the beginning of Lent as it showcases the penitential practices of a Russian monk as he seeks to atone for his past and make his own very peculiar journey of holiness. Lastly, since Exodus is the Lenten story par excellence you may want to watch Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt (1998) with your whole family sometime in early Lent. What Lenten movies do you and your family find helpful? What other practices have you found that help you keep this season of spiritual growth?
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