Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
I have stolen (with permission) the following reflection from Creighton (University) Online Ministries, authored by George Butterworth, recently of the Law Library at Creighton.

...And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Dear Family,
So, we begin! Lent. The origin of the word has a couple of related sources, but fundamentally the word comes from medieval English before 1000, with Dutch (lente) and German (lenz) relatives. The old English is lencten and it literally means, “lengthen.” Lengthen what? The days of Spring. There is more daylight each day.

I know you were laying awake in bed last night wondering about all of that.

What’s the real point?

Dear Family,
LENT It’s hard to believe Ash Wednesday arrives this week. No Meat for everyone over 14, and fasting for those 14-59. Also, there’s no meat on all the Fridays of Lent. How often I have said to you or myself in the past, “Let’s all go and make the sacrifice of having a lobster on Friday since we can’t eat meat.”

Somehow, we know that doesn’t quite meet the call to do the kinds of things that help us remember who we are, namely people who repent of our sins and believe in the gospel. Those are the words that come with the ashes. We mark our heads with the ashes to remind ourselves that our destiny is with the Lord. It’s the earthly existence that comes from ashes and re¬turns to them.

Dear Family,
As we just celebrated President's Day, I was thinking about our origins and remembered the following prayer written by Bishop, then Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore, the first bishop of the United States. The Church grew quickly under his leadership. This was his prayer. Pray it slowly and thoughtfully. JFF