The Violet Vestments: Why Does the Priest Wear Violet During Lent?

During the Liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent, the priest wears violet. The priest wears violet because it is the color of penance, sorrow, suffering, and humility. Because Lent is a time of penance, it is right for him to wear this color during this Liturgical Season. Historically, violet was also the color of royalty because violet was an expensive color. So, along with being a color of penance and suffering, it also shows how Jesus is the King of Heaven.

SAINTS CORNER - The Saint Named Soubirous: The Story of Saint Bernadette

Whenever someone sees the Blessed Virgin Mary or Jesus comes to them, they're not usually someone special. Mary picked three shepherd children at Fatima, and Jesus picked a young nun named Sister Faustina in Poland. They don't go to the rich, famous, and powerful. They go to the small, humble, and meek. That might be one of the reasons that whenever someone sees an apparition, it isn't believed to be true at first. Why on earth would the Queen of Heaven come to poor children? Well, the Queen of Heaven did just that when she traveled to the small town of Lourdes, France, to speak to a young fourteen year old girl named Bernadette. 

Bernadette was the oldest of six children. She had a disease called asthma that affected her breathing. Because of this, she couldn't go to school, and she couldn't read or write. 

When she was fourteen, she went with her sister and her sister's friend to gather firewood. They came to a place called Massabielle, where there was a small grotto. Her sister and friend waded through the creek to get firewood from the grotto, but the water was too cold and would hurt Bernadette, so she was told to stay on the other side of the creek. While she was waiting, she felt strong, cold, winds. She looked towards the grotto and saw a figure there. The woman was beautiful! She had a white robe, a blue sash, a veil, a rosary in her hands, and a yellow rose on each foot. 

Bernadette didn't know who the woman was, and she was very afraid. She found that she could not make the Sign of the Cross until the woman made the Sign of the Cross. She took out her rosary and prayed. The woman disappeared after Bernadette finished praying the rosary. When Bernadette stood up, she decided to wade through the creek to get to her companions. When she did, the cold creek turned warm and it was easier for her to walk through. 

Bernadette told her companions what had happened, but even though Bernadette made her friend and sister promise not to tell her mother, they told anyway. They believed Bernadette was not really seeing anything; they believed it was just her imagination. Many people told Bernadette to stop going, but she went anyway. More and more people joined her at Massabielle every time she went. Only Bernadette could see the apparition. 

Bernadette and a woman from the town went to the grotto together, with the permission of Bernadette's mother. They went with a pencil and a piece of paper so Bernadette could write down what she said. But the woman in the grotto told Bernadette that she didn't need to write anything, but to come every day for fifteen days. The woman told her that she promised to make her happy in heaven, but not on earth. 

As Bernadette's story got out, more people came to the grotto. Doctors came to examine her. All the doctors said the same thing: there was nothing wrong with her. The government was getting mad at Bernadette, so they forbade her from ever returning to the grotto. Bernadette told them she could do no such thing. She just had to see the woman at the grotto every day! The government told her that if she didn't promise to never return to the grotto, she would be sent to jail. 

Bernadette kept going to the grotto every day. One day, at the grotto, the woman told her to eat the plants in the grotto and drink from the spring. Massabielle had never had a spring, so Bernadette dug a hole in the ground and covered her face with dirt. After she had left, someone found that there was water coming out of the whole in the ground where Bernadette had dug! The water coming from the spring cured many people. 

Bernadette also brought a candle with her to the grotto when she went. Once, while she was watching the woman, she placed her hand over the candle without knowing it. The flames burned right through her hand, but Bernadette wasn't burned or hurt in any way. 

On the Feast of the Annunciation, the woman told Bernadette her name. "I am the Immaculate Conception." Bernadette didn't know what the Immaculate Conception was, so she asked a priest what it was. When he heard that the woman was called the "Immaculate Conception", he knew that the apparition was real because Bernadette didn't know what it meant. 

After all Bernadette's visions were over, Bernadette joined a religious order - the Sisters of Charity. She lived as a Sister of Charity until her death at age 35. She was buried in the convent, but they took her out of the ground to put her body in a church, but they found that her body was just like it was when she had been buried 30 years earlier! Her feast day is April 6.

Saint Bernadette, PRAY FOR US!

March: The Month of Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is one of the most well known saints. He was a protector. He listened to God.

Joseph is the only member of the Holy Family that sinned, but he was still a compassionate, loving husband and father to the members of the Holy Family. He listened to God when he was told to do something. If he hadn't listened, Mary and Jesus would've died.

An angel came to him twice to tell him what to do. He was first visited by the Angel Gabriel when he was told to marry Mary, even though she already had a child. This might've damaged Joseph's reputation, but he did it anyway because he knew it was the right thing to do. The second time he was visited by an angel was in Bethlehem. The angel told him to pack up Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt because Herod was looking to kill Jesus. He was an obedient follower of God.

Saint Joseph is an example for all. He teaches us how to be obedient, and he shows us how to protect families and friends. He shows us how to act immediately when God tells us something. The life of Saint Joseph teaches us a great many things about listening and obedience.

Now, try to be obedient and try to listen! When your parents tell you to load the dishwasher or fold the laundry, be obedient and do it right away. When your friends are having conversations at lunch, listen closely. Say something about the story they had to tell. They will feel like they matter!

God Bless!

Lent

Lent is the period of forty days before Easter. You might be wondering why the church uses the number forty so much. Well, in the Bible, the number forty is used a lot. Noah spent forty days and nights on the ark in the Book of Genesis. The Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert before coming across the Promised Land. Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days when he was tempted by the devil.

During Lent, we focus on three important practices:

• Fasting

• Abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent
• Take part in a fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
• For the fast, you can have one meal and two small meals that don't add up to a full meal
• Many people give up something for Lent 

• Prayer

• Lent is a good time for prayer
• We can pray to change our hearts

• Almsgiving
• Donate some of your toys to a local charity
• Give a few dollars of your allowance to church on Sundays

Lent is a quiet time where you strengthen the three practices above and meditate on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That doesn't mean you can't have fun, through! There are many fun practices you can take part in! For example, you can... 

1. Make a crown of thorns (this is very easy and can be reused from year to year!)
• Get a plain brown wreath
• Get toothpicks (optional: dye them brown)
• Stick the toothpicks in the wreath
• Every time you make a sacrifice, take a thorn out of the wreath
• By Easter, try to have all the toothpicks be gone!
2. Bury your Alleluia
• During Lent, we don't say "Alleluia"
• You can bury your Alleluia!
• Find a box
• Write "Alleluia" on a piece of paper or find an "Alleluia" coloring sheet on the internet
• Color the Alleluia
• Put it in the box
• Leave the box somewhere
• DO NOT OPEN IT UNTIL EASTER SUNDAY

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is a very important day in the Catholic Church: it marks the beginning of the Lenten season! Lent has forty days, so Ash Wednesday begins those forty days. Ashes symbolize penance, as well as mourning. In Biblical times, people would wear sackcloth and sit in ashes to show that they had done wrong. We receive ashes on our foreheads to symbolize repentance.

When you go up to receive ashes on your forehead, the priest might say a number of things, including:

1. You are dust and to dust you shall return.
2. Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel

You are encouraged by the church to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, but it is not a Holy Day of Obligation.

I encourage you to keep your ashes on all day! The ashes are meant to show we are sinners, so wearing them in public is okay! We're all sinners, and so you shouldn't feel uncomfortable with your ashes on at the grocery store, in the park, or anywhere else! Remember: The ashes are not making you a better person, neither are they a sign that you are holy. They point you out as a sinner, which we all are. 

Fun Fact! Did you know that the ashes are from burnt palms from last Palm Sunday? 

Saint Quotes

"Pray, hope, and don't worry." -Padre Pio

"Do not be afraid." - Saint Pope John Paul II

"We cannot all do great things. But we can do small things with great love." -Mother Teresa

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop." -Mother Teresa

"If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze!" -Saint Catherine of Siena

“Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you.” -Saint Augustine of Hippo

“The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are.” -Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

"You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all." -Saint Therese of Lisieux

"Love God, serve God, everything is in that." -Saint Clare of Assisi

"Apart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we can get to heaven." -Saint Rose of Lima

"I am not afraid. I was born to do this." -Saint Joan of Arc

"I fear nothing for God is with me." -Saint Joan of Arc

"My television is the tabernacle." -Mother Teresa

"I will spend my heaven doing good on earth." -Saint Therese of Lisieux

"Love without suffering does not exist." -Saint Bernadette Soubirous

"If you have God as the center of all the action, you will reach your goal." -Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

"For Jesus I am prepared to suffer still more." -Saint Maximilian Kolbe

"Those who seek the truth seek God, whether or not they realize it." -Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

"The smallest thing when done for the love of God is priceless." -Saint Teresa of Avila

"O my Lord, inflame my heart with love for You, that my spirit may not grow weary amidst the storms, the sufferings, and the trials." -Saint Faustina Kowalska

"A saint is a sinner that keeps trying." -Saint Josemaria Escriva

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." -Saint Augustine

Make the Saints Your Friends!

Saint: "a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and typically regarded as being in heaven after death." Saints are people who have made it to heaven. Everyone in heaven is a saint, but some saints are recognized by the church for being especially saintly. But being a saint is not far off! Saint Therese wanted to be a saint, and she said, 

"I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by."

Saint Therese is one of the most popular saints ever, but even she found it hard to be a saint. The way Saint Therese tried to be a saint was through her Little Way. 

It is always nice to have a best friend, someone you can talk to, someone who is always watching out for you. I have found that the saints can be my best friends. Even when you move away from your old home, the saints will move along with you. 

Challenge!: Find one saint that will become your new "best friend". Find a quote from them, find a prayer for them, and find an image of them. Find out a lot about your saint, because when you have a best friend, you know about them, right? You know where they live, go to school, and what they like to do. Find out as much as you can about your new best friend. 

Before you make the saints your friends, remember that you are not praying to the saints, you are asking for their intercession. It's like asking a friend to pray for you. You're not praying to them, but you are asking them to pray for you. When we pray for the intercession of a saint, we are really just asking them to ask God for us.

The next time you are praying, ask a saint to intercede for you. They will help you out, and they will never forget about you!

God bless you!