The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-03-11
the Approach of Lent.

Next Wednesday we enter, as OF
course you know, on the great and holy
season of Lent.
The church is generally full on Ash
| Wednesday, and one would think, on
seeing the crowds pressing forward to
receive the ashes, that they were all
determined to enter into the spirit OF
the church, and to keep Lent as ii
should be kept. Yet how many there
are who go through this outward form
! and make a great deal of it, and yet
neglect all that is signified by it; who
give a show indeed of Denance, but
! bring forth none of its fruits! Some
perhaps. of the Ash Wednesday peni-
tents will not be seen again in the
church till they come forward again
! on Good Friday to kiss the cross.
Yet it is better to come to church,
! if only on Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday, than not at all; better to dc
some penance and show some love of
! God than to neglect these virtues alto
gether. But how much better still 1t
would be to now thoroughly under
stand and seriously take to heart what
! God requires of US, especially in this
holy time, and to make it the means,
as it may be more than anything else,
of our final salyationi
First then, to thoroughly understand
what we are now to do. Everything
must be well understood before it can
be well done. and the keeping of Lent
is no exception to this general rule.
MANY people break the rules of Lent
because they do not clearly understand
them
Lent. then, is not time to be spent
in penance altogether according to
ones own devotion Far from it: the
duties to be performed in it are clear
Nv and precisely laid down. and should
be attended to very strictly. There are
not many: they make no great demand
on our time or strength; but the Chris
tian who discharges them properly VIII
make his Lent far better than one
would who should neglect them ana
take other practices, no matter now
hard. i'm their place. 1t is better 10
keep the real rules or laws of Lent
faithfully than to hear three masses
every dav. and come to all the extra
services. and give half ones goods 20
the poor. and yet neglect our regular
duties.
what. then. are these laws? The first
&c the Easter duty, which should be
made before Easter. if possible, though
tho church indulgently extends the
limo several weeks after that festival.
Make then. this great duty, far the
greatest of all the duties of Christian.
at once; it will be very easy for all OF
You who have just made the mission, to
do ii now. and the longer you put 1t OH
the harder it will be. Make it, then, IL
nossible. the first day it can be made
FIRST Sunday of Lent-and get 1t, II |
NAV say so. off your mind. Do not
fancy that, as you have so lately maze
the mission, the Easter duty is OF little
consequence. If you had made twenty
missions during the past year, and any
number of jubilees, the law OF the
Easter duty would bind you exactly as
much as if you had neglected them all.
II is like hearing mass on Sunday no.
hodv is excused at all from mass on
Sunday because they have been to 1t
fhrough the week. So this time, the
Great sunday of the year, is set apart
nv the church for the precept OF holy
communion: it must be fulfilled at TINS
time no matter how often one has re
ceiyed outside of it.
THE second and only other real law
or I emf is that relating to fasting ana
abstinence. If you attend carefully to
the miles that have been read. you VIII
understand this. well enough. But do
not confuse fasting with ahsti''~'''.e: