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First Week of Lent, February 22-28, 2015
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 Throughout the season of Lent, we will be providing you with resources to pray, study and act for peace with justice. Lent is a particularly good time of the liturgical year to do outreach to our church communities and beyond, engaging our sisters and brothers in the "peace of Christ" through opportunities for prayer, study and action. Many within our communities will be looking for opportunities to connect their prayer, fasting and almsgiving--traditional practices during the Lenten season--with issues and concerns that affect our world. Pax Christi members and local groups are particularly well-situated to help make those connections and extend invitations. In addition to these weekly PSA (Pray-Study-Act) e-bulletins, we have set up a special webpage with more resources which we hope will deepen the experience of Lent for you, your family, your local group and your larger faith community. The PSAs will typically be sent out on Tuesday or Wednesday of the week prior to the week for which they are designed. These, as well as the weekly reflections from past Pax Christi Lenten booklet authors ( like this one from Joan Chittister for Ash Wednesday), will be archived alongside additional resources on our Lent 2015 page. We hope that the peace of Christ dwells deeply in your hearts during this Lenten season.
In peace,
Johnny Zokovitch
Director of Communications, Pax Christi USA
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| PRAY: This is the fast that pleases me... | | |
From the Archdiocese of Chicago (1983)
This is the fast that pleases me:
to break unjust fetters,
to let the oppressed go free,
to share your bread with the hungry
and shelter the homeless poor.
If you do away with the yoke,
the clenched fist, the wicked word,
if you give your bread to the hungry
and relief to the oppressed,
your light will rise in the darkness. (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10)
All praise be yours, God our Creator,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the flowering of justice
and the fullness of peace.
All praise for this day, this season.
By our weekly fasting and prayer
cast out the spirit of war, of fear and mistrust,
and make us grow hungry for human kindness,
thirsty for solidarity with all the people of your dear earth.
May all our prayer, our fasting and our deeds
be done in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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STUDY:
Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent
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By Mitch Finley
Gen 9:8-15 | 1 Pt 3:18-22 | Mk 1:12-15
Jesus was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him. (Mk 1:13b)
Where is Jesus today? Still with the wild beasts, and those who join him will find themselves served by angels.
The risen Christ, of course, is wherever two or three are gathered together in his name. But there's something to be said for the conviction that in a special way Jesus is present where dwell today's "wild beasts."
What are the modern world's "wild beasts"? They are legion and are called by one name: Violence. Wherever human existence is overshadowed by violence and rumors of violence, there Christ invites his people to speak one word: Peace....
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ACT: Join Interfaith Worker Justice's Fast from Fast Food for Lent
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from Interfaith Worker Justice
As many as four million fast food workers across the country are struggling to make ends meet. Many workers are standing up for $15 per hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.
In solidarity with workers, we pledge to Fast from Fast Food and commit to pray for them, their families and the growing Fight for $15 movement every day, from Feb. 18 until April 4. Fast from Fast Food coincides with the 40-day Christian season of Lent, a period of prayer, fasting, repentance and sacrifice. It is also a time of solidarity, particularly with those who have the least.
People of all faith traditions are invited to join in the fast by committing to Fast from Fast Food and "go without" for 40 days. By doing so, we are also choosing to walk hand-in-hand with our brothers and sisters who are leading the struggle that would lift millions of working families out of poverty and put us all on a road back to prosperity.
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