Lent | saintpatrickskilsyth

- Holy Week Resources -

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Holy Week Masses & Services

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Holy Week Day-by-Day (Flipbook)

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Stations of the Cross (Slideshow)

This Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. To allow you and your family mark the beginning of this holy season, small bags of ashes and a prayer service are available from the chapel house front door. We also realise this is not the best way to begin Lent, but we are still strongly encouraged to enter into the spirit of the season by participating in the three chief exercise: Prayer, Fasting & Almsgiving. We are also asked, if age and health permits, to fast on Ash Wednesday from meat. To assist you in your prayer life during Lent, there are a variety of resources available on our own website and the Archdiocese for all ages including children. For those who do not have access to a printer we will leave paper copies at the front door of the chapel house, from Sunday.

- Easter Sunday Mass -

- Lent Resources -

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Ash Wednesday at Home - 17th Feb 2021

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Seven Last Words

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The Meaning of Lent

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Stations of the Cross - Children - Leader

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Stations of the Cross - Mission - Children

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Stations of the Cross - Youth Booklet

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Stations of the Cross - Adults

- It's Meaning -

It is a spiritual preparation for Holy Week and Easter.
A time of special meditation on our sinfulness, and on Christ’s sufferings and death on the Cross for our Redemption.
The forty days remind us of Christ’s forty days of fasting and prayer in the desert. Moses and Elijah also spent forty days in prayer and Jonah preached a forty day fast for Nineveh. Lent is a period of collective prayer and penance. It reminds us that we are a fallen race, subject to both original sin & personal sin. The ashes we receive remind us of this fact, and so collectively, the whole Church has this period of public prayer & penance.

* As God’s People, we all stand in need of Christ’s mercy & forgiveness.

* Lent has great importance today in view of the spiritual ‘black hole’ in our society, and the loss of the very sense of sin itself. We are all in desperate need of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God.

- Our Lenten Response -

Our response is also seen in three ways:

1. A time of Prayer to strengthen our relationship with God.

2. A time of Penance to help us to control our weak and sinful nature.

3. A time of Almsgiving to remind us of our duties to each other and to those in need

- Choose Lenten Resolutions Carefully! -

Sin has damaged us in three ways:

1. In our damaged relationships with God.

2. In the damaged relationship of soul and body we now have a fallen and sinful human nature, wounded by sin, in need of ‘pruning’, that it may bear more fruit. There is also the damage we have caused to our physical environment, to the world that God made.

3. In our damaged relations with our neighbour, through selfishness and lack of love for each other.

Perhaps it is better to choose something we can definitely carry out!

Better to do one thing definitely, than to compromise everything and do nothing!

Perhaps we should concentrate on prayer and our own personal relationship with Our Lord first,

since the modern world gives us enough penances as it is! Our Lord taught us that the first commandment was

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all of your mind.’

(Matt 22-37)

- Prayer -

Do we attend Mass every Sunday, the supreme prayer of Christ and His Church? Could we go to daily Mass and Holy Communion? Is it possible to visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament each day?
Do we consider going to Benediction, Stations of the Cross, or other public devotions during Lent?
Could we follow the Prayer of the Church, the Divine Office, especially Morning, Evening & Night Prayer each day?
Do we spend time each day in personal prayer to Christ? Do we say our morning and night prayers?
Do we say other prayers - The Holy Rosary, the Angelus, Grace before and after meals?
Do we do some regular ‘spiritual reading’ of the Scriptures, or other spiritual books to raise our minds to God?

- Penance -

Are we regular in going to the Sacrament of Confession? Are there serious moral faults we should try to conquer, and which separate us from God and prevent Him working in us?
Do we carry out our Friday penance by fasting or abstinence?
Are there particular addictions, weaknesses or excesses that we should try to remedy - food, drink, smoking, TV, radio etc.?
Laziness, impatience with others, being on time?
Denial of legitimate luxuries for the love of God?

- Almsgiving -

The corporal works of mercy - do we give generously to those in need?
The spiritual works of mercy - do we give time to others - family, friends, neighbours, the sick, the lonely, the bereaved?
Do we help the Church in our parishes, communities, schools etc. where possible?
Do we try to love, not only those we like but also those we do not like, or who do not like us, as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount?

- Lent Calendar -

Follow our 2021 Online Lent Calendar to reflect, pray and take global justice actions throughout the season of Lent.

- Stations of the Cross - 19th March

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) has announced that supporters of the much-loved WEE BOX, BIG CHANGE Appeal, will soon be able to get their hands on the WEE BOX.

Despite the lockdown supporters of the charity can get their WEE BOX online now at www.sciaf.org.uk/weebox

For more than two decades, the initiative has been a fixture in many households throughout Scotland. Every year, generous Scots give up a treat for Lent and place the money they would save into the WEE BOX.

Money raised from this appeal helps to provide the crucial schooling, healthcare, food, sanitation, and support to earn a living that families need to work themselves out of poverty.

The Scottish aid charity has developed comprehensive online resources, jam packed with exciting activities for all ages to ensure people are able to continue to support the appeal.

Penelope Blackwell, Director of Public Engagement said: “The money raised from Lent appeals provides a lifeline to thousands of families who are less fortunate and gives them the hope and support they need to build better futures. We cannot do any of this without the help of our supporters and I would like to thank each and every one you.”

To collect a WEE BOX, they will be available from today, Sunday 14th Feb. These can be picked up from the Chapel house porch and we hope to hand deliver some too.

To order a WEE BOX go to: www.sciaf.org.uk/weebox or call 0141 354 5555.