Morning Briefings

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

– Luke 23:46

The Paschal Triduum, often called the Easter Triduum or simply the Triduum, begins during Holy Week, and consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. This includes the Great Easter Vigil, the high point of the Triduum.

–
churchyear.net

Jesus went into the desert an unknown young carpenter from Nazareth, with thirty years of hidden life behind him. After the desert he returned to Galilee, and started to preach. Quickly he became a public figure, but he loved to withdraw to desert or mountain to recharge his energies by prayer. He moved forward like any of us, with no sure knowledge of what was to happen to him.

–
Sacred Space

For ‘the 43’ — who I continue to pray for every day. I can’t imagine a reason I would ever stop. They are: Vince Bianco, Father Joe Scerbo, Laura Dame, Mr. Beman, Mark Hammond, Michael & Lucy Joerger, Janice Leach, Sheila Sullivan, Erika Markel, Shelley Fyffe, Lynn Gallagher, Robin Wilder, Cathy Holiday, Sandy Marquez, Lu Durbin, The Ward Family, Kevin & Evelyn Flores, Arnold Steinberg, Patrice Sanchez, David & Nancy Paskowitz, Kathryn Downs, Pete & Eileen Smith, Milina & Jimmy Bianco, Shauna Hull, Janice Germaine, Lori Shelton-Jenks, Marybeth Robb, Tina Dorn-Brown, Rose & Vern Hand, Kathleen French, Autumn Esser, Irene Hung, Annette Berger, Shelly Thayer, Megan Bianco, Bailey Bianco, Pam Malchow, Cathy Lawson Kolbly, Robin & Kelly Richardson, Karen Burns, Angela Macabuhay, Chris Fritz, Angie Burns.

– Leslie Bianco, from the Dedication of our book and as referenced in
Lent Stories on our Facebook page

Mardi Gras, literally ‘Fat Tuesday’ has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the ‘last hurrah,’ before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of street sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter toward home.

–
AmericanCatholic.org

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

– Psalm 22:1

Only by slowing down do we make time for one another. Only by stopping long enough to observe our surroundings can we bring shape and meaning to our lives.

– Katrina Kenison
Mitten Strings for God

I am constantly surpirsed at how I keep taking the gifts God has given me–my health, my intellect and emotional gifts–and keep using them to impress people, receive affirmation and praise, and compete for rewards, instead of developing them for the glory of God. It’s almost as if I want to prove to myself and to my world that I do not need God’s love, and that I can make a lofe on my own.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Return of the Prodigal Son

It seems to me that the season of Lent and the celebration of Easter fall at the perfect time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Easter and spring arrive together. The church asks us to imitate nature and make sure that we are giving birth to new life at Easter. No matter how old we are, there is still new life in all of us.

– Reverend James O’Leary
I Think I Am Happier Than I Think I Am

The Archdiocese of Boston is turning to television, the Internet, and the power of God for the answers, by calling inactive Catholics home to the Church for Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season. A massive television blitz in Boston and in 8 other (arch)dioceses begins today using highly produced television messages developed by the Atlanta based non-profit Catholics Come Home, Inc.

– Rising from the Ashes! Technology Bringing Faithful Home on Ash Wednesday
DigitalJournal.com