Lenten Message from the Prior Provincial
Dear brothers and sisters,
As we prepare ourselves for our Lenten journey starting this week, we are reminded that we are sinners who experience the unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus. The Church affords us the opportunity every year calling us to deepen our interior dialogue with God and one another in our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting/abstinence, and almsgiving.
Through his own example in the Confessions, Saint Augustine teaches us how to reset our lives and recognize that God’s grace has been accompanying us the whole time in our personal and communal journey. Through the constant call to conversion and its outward signs of change in attitude and behavior, we meet each other along the way to support one another in our struggle toward wholeness.
The Religious Life Commission of our Province offers us the opportunity to reflect together on A Journey Toward Ecological Conversion during this Lenten season. The Justice and Peace Commission has also endorsed this exercise toward mutual responsibility to our environment. We are grateful to the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns for providing the Lenten guide. Please click here for the pdf attachment.
The current political rhetoric in the presidential campaign has become a lightning rod of discord, dissension and division. When this nation should be coming together to address the needs and interests of its citizens, it has become disruptive and polarizing dividing us rather than uniting us. This has an effect on the Church as well. There are Catholics who are considered to the right or to the left of center finding themselves at odds with one another depending on the issues. As Religious and as Augustinians especially, we are called to accentuate our mission toward unity. We are called to be a prophetic in our lifestyle in the midst of the complexity of distinct personalities and perspectives coming together toward a common purpose. What a GRACE!!! This is an opportunity to accompany one another. This is an invitation to allow that GRACE to permeate our lives and lift our minds and hearts to Christ who accompanies us toward the heart of the Father.
Fraternally,
Fr. Tony Pizzo, OSA
Rev. Anthony B. Pizzo, O.S.A.
Prior Provincial
Augustinians of the Midwest
