The Season of LENT 2025

The Season of Lent at St Andrew’s Parish in Clarkson

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2024 (pdf)

Ash Wednesday (5th March) – Beginning of the Lenten Season.

 Ash Wednesday, in the Western Christian calendar, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days (40 days not counting Sundays) before Easter.  It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter.  It can occur early as February 4 (February 5 on Leap years) or as late as March 10.

 Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of repentance.  The ashes used are typically gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.  In the liturgical practice of some churches, the ashes are mixed with the Oil of Catechumens (one of the sacred oils used to anoint those about to be baptised), though some churches use ordinary oil.  At Masses and services of worship on this day, ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful, the priest, minister or in some cases officiated layperson, marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until it wears off.

 Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence.  The law of fasting binds those who have completed their eighteenth year until the beginning of their sixtieth year; the law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year.  Lent is a penitential season of prayer, self-denial and helping others.  In this way the whole Church prepares for Easter with those who are to be baptised.  Other celebrations in Lent (e.g. marriage) must take account of the spirit of penance, musical instruments are only to be used to sustain singing, and floral decorations are very simple.

• Parish Masses – There will be two masses held on Ash Wednesday; 8:00am & 7:00pm.
• School Masses – St Andrew’s CPS: 8.45am (in the Church), Irene McCormack CC: 8:45am (at the college) & St Francis of Assisi CPS: 1.45pm (at the school)
• Mass & Stations of the Cross – Every Friday during Lent at 7:00pm in the Church

Stations of the Cross also known as “Way of the Cross” or “via crucis” this private devotion has consisted of 14 stations, taken both from Scripture and tradition, since the 17th Century when the Church officially approved the now common Lenten practice. It was born out of widespread devotion to the passion of Christ in the 12th and 13th Centuries, the Stations of the Cross, as a devotion, did not begin to develop until the Franciscans were granted custody of Christian sites in Jerusalem in 1342, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. St Leonard of Port Maurice became known as the “Preacher of the Way of the Cross” in the 18th Century because he is credited with erecting more than 572 stations between 1731 and 1751. Today almost all Catholics churches have a set of the stations somewhere on the church grounds.

Mass and Stations of the Cross – Every Friday during Lent in the Church

Every Friday during Lent, there will be Mass celebrated at 7:00pm followed by the Stations of the Cross at 7.30pm. Everyone is encouraged to attend the Mass before the Stations of the Cross

Lenten Prayer

God of goodness and mercy. Hear my prayer as I continue this Lenten journey with you.

 Let me be honest with myself as I look into my heart and soul, noticing the times I turn away from you, guide me as I humbly seek to repent and return to your love.

  May humility guide my efforts to be reconciled with you and live forever in your abundant grace.

Transform me this lent, Heavenly Father give me the strength to commit myself to grow closer to you each day.

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