Care for God's Creation is one of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and a requirement of our faith. All of creation is a gift and we are responsible for it. When the Earth is abused by environmental degradation, it is a sin and all of us our affected especially the poor. Pope Benedict in his World Day of Peace address this year has linked environmental justice with the cause for peace. He shows and our faith teaches that caring for God's creation enables and encourages solidarity with all the Earth's inhabitants.
Our Peace and Justice commission and Center for Catholic Social Teaching encourages you this Earth Day to put your faith into action. Below are some ideas to how you can celebrate the day and links to resources.
Ideas of how you can care for God's creation this Earth Day
Ride a bike or walk to school or work.
Make an energy fast by not using electricity. Keep your lights off, do not run your appliances, and refrain from using hot water.
Instead of watching TV for entertainment, play board games with family and friends.
Get outside and go for a hike or work in a garden.
Bring your own bags shopping and your own mug to the coffee shop.
The Legacy Land Conservancy is a local non-profit working to protect and preserve the environment of southern Michigan.
Flow for Water works to raise awareness about water issues and protecting the Great Lakes. They are at the forefront of combating the problems of the bottle water industry and the privatization of water.
The Pew Center for Climate Change is a leader in bringing together business leaders, policy makers, scientists, environementalists, and others to find new ways to protect the environment and while sustaining economy security for all people. Their website has many resources to educate you on this complex issue.
Thank you for sharing your gifts and enthusiasm with the Holy Trinity community. May God bless you and give you peace as you go now and serve the world.
And to all the returning students: good luck with your finals, have a great summer, and we will see you in the fall.
We prepare to celebrate the most sacred and holy moment of our year- the celebration of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection- the Paschal Triduum. Lent has led us here to the Cross but not just to it. No, we are led through the Cross to the joy and new life of Easter, to the Resurrection. These three days mark the triumph of life over death.
These three days are reckon as the Jewish people record a day, from sundown to sundown, so that the Triduum begins with sundown on Holy Thursday and continues to sundown on Easter Sunday. But in many ways these days stand outside of time and should feel like one. We enter the mystery on Thursday evening and emerge somehow changed on Easter Sunday.
Holy Thursday
Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, 7:00pm, Holy Trinity Chapel
We begin the Paschal Triduum with the celebration of the evening mass of the Lord's Supper where we remember in a profound way where we are called. In the sharing of Eucharist and in the ritual of washing feet, we are reminded that to follow Christ is to follow a humble path of service. We are asked to wash each other's feet, to give our lives away, to work for and proclaim justice and mercy, and to not be so full of pride that we fail to recognize our own need to be washed and our dependence on others.
At the end of the liturgy, we strip the altar bare and remove the Eucharist to a special altar of reservation. Here, our focus is on Jesus Christ alone as we wait with our Lord for the confrontation with death.
Good Friday
Stations of the Cross, 12:15 pm, Holy Trinity Chapel
simple meal of soup and bread, 12:35 pm, Social Hall
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion, 7:00 pm, Holy Trinity Chapel
At this liturgy we remember the Lord's Passion. There will be no Eucharist consecrated but rather we share the Eucharist from the evening mass of the Lord's Supper; it is that Eucharist that continues to sustain us. We will enter this liturgy in silence. We have been waiting and all are focus is on Christ's final act of love.
We venerate the Cross this day as a sign and symbol of our embrace of Christ. We bring ourselves to the wood and touch it, kneel before it, kiss it, and hold it knowing that by it we are transformed and redeemed.
Holy Saturday
no liturgy celebrated
This is not an extra day in the Triduum but a part of the second day. Jesus has died and is laid in the tomb; we wait there and grieve.
Easter Vigil
Saturday, 8:30 pm, Holy Trinity Chapel
Tonight, the beginning of the third day, we light the Easter fire and dispel the darkness. In darkness we begin but in light we emerge proclaiming the joy of Christ our light.
This night is a wonderful night of telling stories, our stories. We will hear nine readings (seven from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament). They will carry us into the mystery of our faith and bring us exultant into the joy and love of Christ.
For our Alternative Spring Break, we travelled to the P.I.M.E. mission in Mexico and were transformed by the hospitality and love of the people. Mexico is in turmoil as it wrestles with changes to its traditional culture, the rights and treatment of indigenous peoples, the exploitation of the poor, and the violence associated with the drug trade and yet our group gained solidarity and connection with the people of Mexico and the P.I.M.E. mission which we hope will grow at Holy Trinity.
Please check out our photo album and join us for a Mexican Fiesta on April 17th to learn more about the trip and ways you can help. Details will be posted soon.
The Mission, starring Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro, tells the story of the Jesuit missionary efforts in South America during the 18th century. The missionaries and the indigenous people are threatened by greed and political forces within the Church and State. Iit is a powerful movie of love and redemption and beautifully illustrates the power of the Cross as we enter Holy Week.
Instead of doing an all-nighter studying for an exam or finishing a paper, why not begin your Lent by staying up with Jesus Christ.
The Chapel will be open all night for private adoration and prayer while downstairs in the Newman Student Lounge we will have conversations about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, a meal, and movies to nourish our celebration of Lent.
Come and pray with us for guidance, insight, and peace as we begin this season of conversion.
Schedule
7:00 pm- Liturgy and distribution of ashes
8:00 pm-6:00 am- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and private prayer in the chapel
8:00 pm-8:45 pm- conversation on prayer in the lounge
9:00 pm-9:45 pm- conversation on fasting in the lounge
10:00 pm-10:45 pm- conversation on almsgiving in the lounge
We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all churches in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. (St. Francis of Assisi)
The liturgical season of Lent has its origins in the ancient Church's preparation of the catechumenate for baptism at the Easter Vigil. Since Vatican II and the renewal of the catechumenate, the Church has reemphasized Lent's ancient connection to baptism and new life.
In baptism, we go down into the waters with Christ in order to rise again with Christ, to come out of the water cleansed, re-born, redeemed, changed. We die with Christ in order to live with Christ. These forty day of Lent (We don't count Sundays because Sunday is always a little Easter, a celebration of the resurrection.) are an opportunity each year to live in a more intentional way our baptismal call to conversion and to profoundly experience the possibility of redemption. It is an opportunity to be born again.
Perhaps if we remember that the word Lent means springtime, we can better understand and experience Lent's connection to baptism and new life. Spring is a season of hope and anticipation, the passing of the dreariness of winter. With the first warm day, we throw off our winter coats and walk the campus free and unburdened. By living Lent with baptism in mind, by practicing the three pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we make our way to the springtime and joy of Easter.
Ash Wednesday
Though not a holy day of obligation, most Catholics will make their way to church this day to be marked with a cross of ashes. The ashes remind us of our own mortality and the need for repentance but they also in a profound way illustrate that our conversion is worked out here in the messiness of this world.
The three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving
prayer
Prayer at its basic level is the paying attention to the movement of God in our hearts and in our world. It is recognizing the love of God stirring within us the desire to move beyond ourselves to a loving communion with God and others. Lent is an excellent opportunity to recommit yourself to prayer. Here our some ways Holy Trinity can help you pray this Lent:
Attend daily Mass: We gather for liturgy Monday-Thursday at 12:15pm.
Busy Person's Retreat-Go on retreat without packing a suitcase! You will meet with a spiritual companion once a week and commit to 15 minutes of daily prayer.
Join MOCHA for faith-sharing: Every Tuesday at 8:00pm, we pray and reflect upon the upcoming Sunday's readings.
Reflect upon the Paschal Mystery: The community will pray the Stations of the Cross each Friday at 7:00pm during Lent.
Use the Little Black Book: The Little Black Book is an excellent resource to help you incorporate prayer into your daily routine. It asks you to find just six minutes of quiet reflection a day and it gives you scripture readings and meditations to help focus your prayer. You can pick one up in the atrium of the John XXIII Campus Center at Holy Trinity.
Make a retreat: Our undergraduate student retreat is March 19-21.
Discernment of Spirits with Fr. Phil: Fr. Phil will once again lead the community in reflecting upon Ignatian spirituality every Monday evening at 7:00 pm.
Taize prayer: Join us March 31st for this unique service of candlelight prayer, meditation, and song.
fasting
Fasting is a spiritual discipline where we traditionally forgo food for a proscribed period of time. We make ourselves hungry so that rather than reaching for food to feed that hunger we allow God to feed us. Fasting is never an end in itself but should always lead us towards God.
What do you normally reach for when you are bored or lonely or distracted from God? It might not be food but something else. This is what you can fast from this Lent.
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the only days that adult Catholics (18-60) are obligated to fast and abstain. This means we only eat one full meal and two smaller snacks plus abstain from all meat. Those who are sick, pregnant women, and the elderly are not obligated to fast. Though we are only obligated to abstain from meat during the Fridays of Lent, the Church encourages us to practice this spiritual discipline throughout the year.
Here are some other suggestions for fasting this Lent:
Skip one meal a day or week and spend that time praying or doing an act of service.
Fast from one meal a day or week. The money you would have spent on that meal can be given to an organization fighting poverty and hunger like Catholic Relief Service's Operation Rice Bowl.
Fast from food, using electricity or gas, and/or using water to shower for a day to be in solidarity with those who go without these necessities and to care for God's creation.
almsgiving
The Church has always encouraged us to practice the corporal works of mercy (feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, visiting the sick, sheltering the homeless, and burying the dead) as a way to proclaim God's kingdom of love, justice, and peace. By giving alms, we pay attention to God and our reminded of our dependence on God's goodness. But almsgiving must move beyond the act of writing a check or dropping a dollar bill in the collection basket and lead us to being in relationship with those who are suffering.
Here are some suggestions for almsgiving this Lent:
Educate yourself about a justice issue and discover ways you can make a difference. The Faith and Action page of our website has excellent resources to help you do this.
Participate in our Day of Service March 27. We are organizing a number of different service opportunities that day.
Visit a nursing home or an elderly neighbor. Invite them to share a meal with you.
Help with the Hunger coalition food pantry at Holy Trinity or some other social service agency
Contribute something to the weekly offering at Holy Trinity
Creighton University: Creighton's On-line Ministries are an excellent source of prayers, reflections, and readings to help you make a meaningful Lent.
American Catholic: St. Anthony Messenger Press provides many resources to help you celebrate the season of Lent.
Busted Halo: They have a relevant and inspiring Fast, Pray, Give Calendar to help you practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Visit it each day for helpful suggestions in how to be renewed this Lent.
