Season of Lent

By Bryan Foti
It is a Wednesday afternoon and the church bells are ringing. People are filling into the pews at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in downtown Plattsburgh. This is no ordinary Wednesday mass, this day it is Ash Wednesday, and this marks the beginning of the season of Lent.
Lent is the 40-day period that leads up to Easter. It includes Holy Week, which is the week that the Christian lord Jesus Christ dies. Lent also has some traditions that parishioners in the church follow. One tradition is to abstain from eating meat on Friday’s during the Lenten season. Another major tradition is sacrifice. Many people will give something up during Lent weather it is candy, cigarettes, or watching less TV. Nevertheless, what these Plattsburgh parishioners may not realize is that there is more to Lent then just giving something up and not eating meat; there is so much going on in the Religious Community during the Lenten Season.
When people think about Lent they think it is about honoring the death of Jesus Christ. Lent actually has nothing to do with the death of Christ at all. Monsignor Joseph Abuin who served as Priest from 1955- 2000 and currently lives at the rectory at St. Peter’s Church in Plattsburgh states, “The purpose of Lent is a period of preparation of those who are entering the church.” During Lent church allows people who have not received the sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation to study and explore their faith though prayer, reading, and religious education. They will be accepted into the church by receiving these sacraments at the Easter Vigil, which takes place the night before Easter Sunday. Therese Moen is the Director of Religious Education at St. Peter’s Church in Plattsburgh and she helps these people in preparing for Baptism, Communion, and Conformation. When asked about her main message when instructing her classes about Lent she said “my main message is that Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and life.” Meaning that the way Jesus lived his life is the way that we should try to live our lives.
Moen also runs the RCIA program at St. Peter’s which helps people prepare for the sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent. The first thing that they will go over is the three scrutinizes which according to Moen “is where you stop and reflect on social sins.” They then go on to learn about reflections on Water, and the Rising of Lazareth which represents resurrection.
Another misconception about Lent is that the number 40 means the number of days that Jesus walked in the desert. But according to Abuin it has nothing to do with that at all “the number 40 is a Jewish spiritual number which means many. If you look in the bible it rained for 40 days in the Noah’s Ark story, it took the Jewish people 40 years to find the holy land.” The number 40 symbolizes the long perpetration in preparing to receive the sacraments at the Easter Vigil.
Abuin says that all Catholics during Lent should practice strong Christian life beliefs and the best way to do that is through prayer and penance. Penance is doing something good daily. Aubin says “it takes a lot of self control and will-power.” Lent gives Catholics a great chance to increase their faith with God. Attending daily mass and daily prayer are the best ways to increase one’s faith during the Lenten season according to Abuin. When it comes time to renew the baptismal vows that every Catholic does on Easter Sunday, “you have to mean it” says Abuin.
During the Lenten Season, it is said that you should sacrifice something that you like however, here in the Plattsburgh Community the parishes have a different meaning of sacrifice. Father Timothy Canaan is the Pastor at St. John the Baptist Church located in downtown Plattsburgh. He says that you should still give something up. For example let’s say a person gives up watching TV; the person should not sit at home, and act; like a bump on a log. The person should be pro-active with the free time given to him. Canaan suggests he should go to a soup kitchen, read, or do something productive with the time. At St. Peter’s Abuin agrees with Canaan saying that volunteering time and attending daily mass is much more productive then just sacrificing something during the Season.
During the Lenten Season, the parishes in the Plattsburgh Community get into the action by holding many fun and beneficial activities. Deacon Mark Bennett who is the Spiritual Life Director for St. Peter’s explains some of the programs that they offer. The first program that St. Peter’s offers is a scripture study called Why Catholics. In this program, the parishioners study readings from the passion, which is story about the death of Jesus Christ. They also read about the resurrection story. St. Peter’s has the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent. Bennett raves about the Women’s Mediation Group that meets throughout lent saying “we get very good attendance here, 35 to 40 is the low and 100 being the high. The women really like this program.” Moen says that St. Peter’s offers Lenten reflections and a Cry Hope program that people involved with the parish can get involved in. When asked on how the community embraces Lent she says, “Father John (pastor at St. Peter’s) does a very nice job of decorating the Church, and gets the word out by preaching.”
St. John the Baptist Church offers it own programs during Lent as well. Just like St. Peter’s St. John’s offers the Stations of the Cross every Friday evening. Canaan offers the sacrament of Reconciliation every day from 3p.m. to 4 p.m. during Lent. The church has a book club that is currently reading “The 7 Last Words of Christ” during this Lenten Season. Next the church offers a Soup and Share program where people sit down have a meal and reflect on prayer. For the last 20 years St. John’s has been decking out their parishioners by giving them a pin that symbolizes lent to wear on their shirts. This year’s theme is “Journey to the Cross.”
It is easy to see how people can get immersed in the Lenten sprit. However, the Churches are not the only ones promoting Lent. Seton Catholic Central School came into existence in 1989 and currently has 180 students enrolled with 36 of them being international students. Stephen Tartaglia is a Guidance Consoler at the school. Tartaglia says the school gets involved with the Lenten culture “for one the morning prayers have more of a Lenten theme, and we decorate the walls in purple to represent Lent.” Seton Catholic normally has mass in their gym on Ash Wednesday. This year they were unable to do so because Ash Wednesday was during President’s week and the students were off from school. The school offers a Campus Ministry Club that does canned-food drives during Lent to give to the poor.
The Churches in Plattsburgh try their best to educate and offer programs to increase the faith of their parishioners. Canaan says “Lent is like a retreat it gives us a journey of 6-weeks to grow closer to our lord and give us new life.” When Bennett was asked how he tries to get the message of Lent across to his parishioners he says “you try to make one or two points. Make them quick and effective and relate them to what they are doing in their daily lives.”