The Light is On for You & Catholic Reading Wednesday

Do you need a new start?  The Light is On for You!

Go to confession TONIGHT, or any Wednesday this Lent from 6:30-8:00 pm in our own church,

or any parish or chapel in the Boston Diocese.

All people are welcome to come to the Heavenly Feast, so start with a good confession to our Lord.

An introduction on how to make a good confession can be found here.  

What to do in Lent? How can we make this a holy season, growing spiritually and in our relationship with our Lord? Here's are five quick thoughts:

1. Sacrifice something - give it up. Not for yourself (aka. dieting), but as an offering to the Lord. Put this thing out of your life for a time, and allow God to fill that void with His grace.
   
2. Give alms - give from your need, not just your excess. Give money saved by making sacrifices to the poor, lonely, forgotten, and mistreated.  Unite yourself to those who suffer, and give with a sincere and generous heart.
   
3. Give time - start a habit of caring for someone that God has put in your life. This may mean beginning a commitment to volunteer, visiting a neighbor in need, or giving more dedicated time to your family.
   
4. Go to Confession - recognize your sins, faults, failings, and struggles. Confess them to the Lord sincerely, and ask for His help. God is faithful! Then go out and make amends with those whom you have hurt. Generously forgive those who have hurt you. Offer others the same new beginning which Christ has offered to each of us.
   
5. Make a habit of Prayer - start spending time with God, habitually. For some this means going to Daily Mass. For others, it means praying the Rosary, the Daily Readings, or other set devotions. For others this means cracking open the Scriptures. For others it means sitting quietly and listening to God. Whatever way you pray, just do it.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

With many thanks to our wonderful and insightful curator, Karen Celano, you can delve into a faith-related news article each Wednesday! Karen writes:

Last week in the National Catholic Report, Melissa Musick Nussbaum writes about a pastoral crisis facing our church and our world: the lack of ministry to the mentally ill. She asks whether those who suffer from mental illness are the “lepers” of our society, and she points to the historical example of the Mennonites, who in the wake of World War II, established ministries to the mentally ill as an example Catholics could try to follow. “Can you imagine,” she quotes her son (who is a psychiatrist) asking, “if 1 percent of all Roman Catholics were involved in direct care of the mentally ill?”

Society’s neglect of the mentally ill is a matter of social injustice and therefore should be of concern to all Catholics. In the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof speaks to the fact that more than half of prisoners (and three-quarters of female prisoners) have a diagnosable mental illness. He writes: “psychiatric disorders are the only kind of sickness that we as a society regularly respond to not with sympathy but with handcuffs and incarceration. . . [A]lthough some mentally ill people commit serious crimes, the great majority are brought in for offenses that flow from mental illness.” Prisons have become “the de facto mental health hospital,” according to a Chicago sheriff, but the care mentally-ill prisoners receive is inefficient, costly, and subpar.

What can the churches do to help? Recognizing the spiritual and religious aspects of mental illness – and the resources faith communities have to offer the mentally ill – is a good place to start. Recent developments have given cause for hope. Last week Catholic Deacon Tom Lambert of the Archdiocese of Chicago partnered with Rick Warren of Saddleback Church at a the first Gathering on Mental Health and the Church, which was attended by about 3,300 evangelical Christians and Catholics. (You can read more about Deacon Lambert’s mental health ministries here.) The American Psychiatric Association, at last recognizing the role that faith plays in the lives of the mentally ill, has partnered with the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition to foster dialogue between psychiatrists and leaders in the faith community. And Catholic psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Kheriaty has partnered with Monsignor John Cihak to write a newly-published book entitled The Catholic Guide to Depression, to help families and sufferers address their mental illness from a Catholic perspective.

The mentally ill are all around us. With an estimated 26% of the American population suffering from a diagnosable mental illness, the mentally ill deserve to be treated justly, to have their dignity recognized, and to have the support of their faith communities. Let us pray that the Church can rise to the challenge of serving the mentally ill in its midst, and let us pray through the intercession of St. Dymphna for those who suffer and those who care for them.