Archbishop Burke's Pastoral Letter for Lent 2005

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Church will enter the season of Lent on Wednesday, Feb. 9, during a year devoted to the gift and mystery of the holy Eucharist in the life of the Church and of the individual Christian. In his apostolic letter for the Year of the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II wrote about the connection between the Paschal Mystery and the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. "In the Eucharist, Christ makes present to us anew the sacrifice offered once for all on Golgotha. Present in the Eucharist as the risen Lord, He nonetheless bears the marks of His passion, of which every Mass is a ‘memorial,’ as the liturgy reminds us in the acclamation following the consecration: ‘We announce your death, Lord, we proclaim your resurrection’" (Mane Nobiscum Domine, No. 15).

During Mass on Ash Wednesday, the blessed ashes will be imposed on our foreheads in the form of the same cross on which Christ died. In Him, we receive the grace to turn away from our sin and the power to believe in the Gospel and bring this Good News of salvation to the world. In a very real way, we touch the reality of the Paschal Mystery every time we participate in the holy sacrifice of the Mass and receive Christ’s Body and Blood in holy Communion. The blessed ashes remind us of the disposition of soul necessary for sharing in Christ’s sacrifice and of the conversion of life which communion with Christ demands.

This season of Lent is a wonderful opportunity for us to open our hearts to the mystery of the Eucharist, in which we will find healing, peace and grace as we follow in the footsteps of our crucified and risen Savior. I encourage you to respond to the Lord’s grace this Lent by regular spiritual exercises. I commend to you daily Mass, if possible, and prayer before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The regular reception of God’s forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession will prepare your heart for a more intimate communion with Him.

Praying the Stations of the Cross and the rosary also bring us closer to our Eucharistic Lord. All Catholics are asked to abstain from meat and to fast, in accord with Church discipline and personal ability to do so. Other forms of discipline should be followed to purify our use of material goods and strengthen us as stewards of God’s gifts for the good of all. Lent is a time of almsgiving on behalf of the poor and needy.

Finally, our Holy Father in his "Message for Lent 2005" asks us to be especially attentive to our love and care for the elderly. He urges us to overcome the tendency of our society to consider the lives of the elderly to be useless and to isolate them from society, in general. May our Lenten observance help the elderly to know their privileged part in the mission of salvation and help us all to respect their dignity through concrete acts of love and care.

Invoking God’s blessing on you and your home with the prayer that He will abundantly bless your Lenten season, I remain

Yours devotedly in Christ,

(Most Rev.) Raymond L. Burke

Archbishop of St. Louis