Inviting Others to Join You On the Journey of Lent

Like Christmas and Easter, when many people return to church or consider worshiping for the first time, Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent have a powerful attraction. Ash Wednesday masses are the third most attended of the year! The beginning of Lent calls for a fresh start and a return to God. Ash Wednesday masses, in particular, speak to the existential experience of the human person.

Our choices and our sins plague all of us. At the core of the human person is the need and desire to acknowledge one’s own sinfulness and fragile condition. The liturgy of Ash Wednesday perfectly speaks to our human fragility when she says, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

With so many newcomers joining us on Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that Jesus identifies himself with those who are strangers to us - “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). How, then, can we see Jesus in our visitors this Ash Wednesday?

• Consider parking towards the back of the parking lot or across the street on Ash Wednesday. There’s no better feeling than rolling into the parking lot two minutes before mass and finding a parking space in the parking lot!
• Save the seats at the end of the pew for those showing up late, if you are able. It can be uncomfortable for a first-timer to have to climb over others seated at the end.
• Don’t recognize the person sitting next to you? Introduce yourself, ask them their name, and welcome them to Holy Infant! If they are not parishioners here, tell them we are glad they are with us.
• Does someone look confused? Ask if they need help with something. Be the friendly face that can direct visitors to the bathroom or nursery.

  As we enter the desert, let us all be reminded that we too, were once wanderers.