From the Desk of
Bishop Edward U. Kmiec

February 9, 2005

Dear Friends,

We are coming to a wonderful season of grace, a wonderful chance and opportunity to grow in our love of our Lord. We need to find Him a little bit more and come closer to Him during this time. We begin with the sign of penitence because it is a time to reform ourselves, to work on a conversion; conversion meaning to turn towards our Lord a lot more, to maybe put aside all those earthly distractions that we have and really think in terms of what we really need to do because we are people who will be facing eternal destiny at some time.

But even in our lives, what we need is His friendship and the love of our Lord, His companionship. Our Lord who gives of Himself very, very much is our companion, our friend, our brother.

Yes, he is Lord of Lords, but He is so loving in extending His love and I see Lent very, very much as this great time where we can return God's love to Him in a very special way by doing the good works that are traditional. We speak about prayer, about fasting, certainly. We know the old traditional things, we always talk about, "What are you giving up for Lent?"

We hope we do that, but we should also increase our prayer and think in terms of alms giving, that we think of those in need. Perhaps there are opportunities for that as well. But in general, we want to take on the spirit of Lent. Somehow we want to draw much closer to the Lord during this time, that by Easter, when we celebrate that feast, we can say, some way or another, in these 40 days, I've found Christ a little bit more in my life.

And not just for the 40 days, but something to carry forth as we go on our journey of life, on our journey of faith, on our journey to God.

St. Paul, in the epistle today, says, "This is an acceptable time. This is our opportunity, it's a great chance for our salvation." He speaks of it as a great chance for our salvation. So let us enter into this season with that kind of a thought.

Here is a great opportunity. Sometime you might say, "Lent, it’s a tough time with penance and all that." But no, it's much more than that. It's really a time when we have the chance to grow so much closer to our Lord. We might need all kinds of inspiration and motivation and what we can do with that is certainly most worthwhile.

I found something that I thought would be most appropriate as we approach this particular season in our Church. It's called "Feasting and Fasting." It’s one of the great spiritual things we can do as we progress through this particular time of our Church year.

Fast from judging others;
Feast on Christ dwelling in them.

Fast from fear of illness;
Feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute;
Feast on speech that purifies.

Fast from discontent;
Feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger;
Feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism;
Feast on optimism.

Fast from negatives;
Feast on affirmations.

Fast from bitterness;
Feast on forgiveness.

Fast from suspicion;
Feast on trust.

Fast from gossip;
Feast on silence.

Fast from problems that overwhelm;
Feast on the prayer that sustains.

Fast from worry;
Feast on faith.

I wish you all a wonderfully and holy Lent. God bless you.

+Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec
Bishop of Buffalo