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2024 Lenten Resources February 21st, 2024
We invite you to join us this Lent to take actions to help preserve God’s great gift of Creation.
Invite your communities to distribute them as bulletin inserts during worship on an upcoming Sunday. Each year, these calendars go up on refrigerators and bulletin boards across communities, and open many conversations about environmental stewardship and climate action.
“Christians have fasted from meat during Lent for generations. Try eating vegetarian today and check out Oxfam’s Eat for Good resource online for other ways to use your fast to bless others”: bit.ly/eat4good
Visit their website to download the calendars:
ipldmv.org/lent
“May this season serve as a reminder of our interdependence and our call to care for our common home.”
JPIC Lenten Mission Workshops held at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville, Texas March 21st, 2016
Fr. Antonio Ponce, OMI, Oblate JPIC Director led a Lenten Mission event from Sunday, March 13 to Saturday, March 19 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville, TX with the theme: Lent, an opportunity to learn, reflect and live the year of Year of Mercy. The events included days of reflection, preaching at several masses on Sunday, and concluding on Saturday with a procession carrying the statue of patron Saint, Joseph the worker.
Thanks to the bishop of Brownsville, the director of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and parishioners for their hospitality. This event is part of an ongoing JPIC office initiative to conduct outreach and animation at Oblate parishes.
Saturday procession along Main Street.
![Bishop of Brownsville[2]](http://omiusajpic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bishop-of-Brownsville2.jpg)
The Bishop of Brownsville, Daniel Flores
Banner of Patron Saint Joseph, Protector of Families
Group picture with Fr. Antonio Ponce, OMI
![Fr. Michael omi[2]](http://omiusajpic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Fr.-Michael-omi2.jpg)
Director of the Cathedral, Fr. Michael Amesse, OMI
Marchers along Main Street
The Grace of Earth March 11th, 2014
GOD REVEALING, GOD INSPIRING, GOD CHALLENGING
“Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 2007
This lenten reflection – again, thanks to the Columban Fathers – explores six Earth life support systems as ways of “God revealing, God inspiring, God challenging”. The resource offers reflections on Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, fresh water, land, plant life, and animal life.
We are encouraged to “… meditate in wonder and thanksgiving at the beauty and complexity of Earth’s eco-cycles. We reflect in sadness and outrage at our human abuse. We ask for forgiveness and decide on positive action for change.”
You can find The Grace of Earth here. (downloadable PDF available)
Lenten Reflections on the Environment March 5th, 2014
I THIRST: A LENTEN JOURNEY FROM DESERT TO GARDEN by Terri MacKenzie (download PDF)
Scripture quotes from the readings for the Sundays of Lent are explored in light of various Earth concerns: water, air, soil. Sessions include input, prayer, silence, discussion, and action suggestions. Originally designed for use by groups, this resource could also be used for individual reflection.
Truth, Justice and Mercy Meet February 15th, 2013
“Truth and Mercy have met together
Justice and Peace have kissed.” (Psalm 84)
“In these two short lines there are four important concepts and two powerful paradoxes. The concepts kept running through my mind as I watched the peace process unfold [in Nicaragua] in its fits and starts. I noticed for the first time that the Psalmist seemed to treat the concepts as if they were alive. I could hear their voices in the war in Nicaragua. In fact, I could hear their voices in any conflict. Truth, Mercy, Justice and Peace were no longer ideas. They became people. And they could talk.”
John Paul Lederach, a Mennonite Christian, is an influential author and practitioner in the fields of conflict transformation and peace building. He has written a little play – “a liturgy of sorts” as Lederach calls it, based on his experiences in working with conciliation groups in Nicaragua who often used Psalm 84 for their biblical reflections. We would like to share it with our readers as a good mediation piece for Lent. (Download the PDF)
