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Image provided by: Rochester Regional Library Council
35S3gBBiS3S53gg3Sg^^ Courier Journal jft Thursday, February 9, 1989 Feature 'New'Lent: a time ofcommunal purification^] By Father Robert J. Kennedy One Ash Wednesday several years ago, after I had finished the service in which I used the preferred formula for the distribution of ashes, \Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel,\ I was confronted by one parishioner whom I knew quite well. \What's the matter, Father?\ he| asked good- humoredly. \Aren't I 'dust' anymore?\ I re- sponded with equal good humor and suggested that if he had been listening to my homily, he would know why I had not used the more famil- iar formula. Of course he had indeed been listening very carefully, and went on to say that he had found the' 'new'' form more challenging and more hopeful. This week, the Christian people have again accepted the cross of ashes on their foreheads, and have begun the season of Lent. United by this gesture of repentance, we join wose prepar- ing for the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil — catechumens — in a six-week process of purification. It is a process that will seek to eliminate from our lives all that has turned our baptismal consecration to dust and to strengthen our faithful living of^tifef Christ-life. Through such a process, all will be readied for the cele- bration of baptism or .the. renewal of baptism at Easter which commits lis to faithful living of the •Gospel. ' - »' iri? ; Now this may seematffirst glance to be the opposite of what mariy of us grew up thinking Lent was — namely dark t days of penance and deprivation which compounded the dreariness of late winter. Yet the purpose of the \old\ Lent and the \new\ Lent are the same. Isn't the acknowledgment of sin in our lives simply an- other way of asking noW we can live the holy life of baptism? Aren?tjih# penances we under- take really the ways \ye practice Gospel values in our lives? Isn't the engagement in a process of conversion and reconciliation and our cele- bration of the liturgy of penance the way we renew the grace of oiif baptism? In short, the business of Lent isfand affrays has been baptism and its life lived ^cording to the Gospel. There is one significant difference, however!, between me \old\ and \new\ Lent. The Lent of the past appropriately focused on sinful atrjL tudes and forms of Behavior, but only in light o[f the individual conscience, privately understood. The Lenten process stopped at the level of Indi- vidualistic introspection. The Lent of the pre- sent asks us to renew our baptismal integrity — each one individually, to be sure — but as members of the community of faith. For this, after all, is our primary identity: No one can be baptized into Christ and live that Christ-life pri- vately. Christians are radically communal peo- ple, sisters and brothers with Christ and one an- other in the Holy Spirit, one Body of Chrisi. The unique personal gifts and individual dignity, that we have from the same spirit are gifts that follow from the first gift of our membership with one another in Christ. Lent, as a season of baptismal renewal, is thus a communal undertaking. Catechumens are initiated into the faith community with the help of the -faith community and in the midst of the Q20SS or OO&V faith community. Penitents are reconciled to the faith community in the same way. And all be- lieving members grow in the faith of the com- munity in exactly the same way. The church community is the intimate partner of any indivi- dual initiation, reconciliation v or continuing conversion which takes place during Lent, or at any othersctime. And the goal of the Lenten process is a \community living more faithfully the^eommunion that is already ours in the death and resurrection of Christ, a community which has heard and responded to the Ash Wednesday invitation: \Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.\ Linda Dovy Hayes Courier-Journal More than 270 students and faculty members at St. John Fisher College part ticipated.in the annual Dance For Love on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4. The dance marathon benefits the Teddi Project, which grants wishes to children with cancer in conjunction with Camp Good Days and Special Times. This year, pledges totaled just over $40,000, beat- ing the previous record of $27,000. Par- ticipants, who began dancing Friday night at 8 p.m. and ended Saturday at the same time, enjoyed music provided by live bands, disc jockeys, and a variety of other groups. Clockwise from top right; marathon participants enjoy a circle dance; aided by Christine Young, Dave Cambria patches up-a few blisters; showing signs of exhaustion, dancers take advantage of a slow song to relax; back-lit by a sunny window, these two girls chose a loftier place than the dance floor to shake their stuff; Jessica Hober sneaks in a nap during a dinner break.
