From Archbishop Donoghue

Parker Kane Memorial Day
March 2, 2001
St. John Neumann School
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Dear Friends in Christ, and especially my dear young friends here at St. John Neumann School,

The day before yesterday, on Ash Wednesday, we began the time of year that we call Lent, and what Lent is, is the 40 days leading up to Easter. For many hundreds of years in our Church, it has been our custom to get ready to celebrate this most important feast of the year by doing special works - special actions that will benefit our soul. You may remember, that in the Gospel, our Lord tells us these special things to do - and they are fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

I think we all know what prayer is - there are prayers we say out loud, when we pray together, like the Hail Mary and the Our Father, and then there are the prayers that really don't have any special words - the prayers that come straight from our hearts, when we are sad, or when we are happy, when we need something very bad, or when we want to thank God for something that He has given us, or our family, or anyone we love. Those prayers happen inside, in the quiet of our own inside space - in our hearts, if that is the way you think of it, and they can be any words or no words at all - what matters is that they are said, or even felt, towards God, and that they are meant to tell Him our deep thanksgiving, that He is there. During Lent, it is a very good time, to look at how often we pray, and if we discover that it is not very often, then to do something about it. I hope that during this Lent, you will all think about praying, and even think about praying more than you already do. The world needs prayer, our Church here in Atlanta and north Georgia needs prayer, I need you prayer, your parents need you prayers - in fact, there is no one you know who doesn't need your prayer. So please, as a way to make this Lent count, pray hard for a certain part of every day. It will make God very happy, and you will be surprised how much better it will also make you feel about everything.

But there are two more things that we do during Lent, that help give it special meaning, and that help us build up our being excited about celebrating Easter, which is still a bit down the road.

One of these is what our Lord calls almsgiving - and that just means, giving to the poor - not just to the people we know who are poor because they have no money - but giving something of what we have, to help anyone who has a need, because of what they don't have. It might be money, and some of the money you and your parents give at Church, or to other good causes, goes right to help those who don't have enough money - to pay their bills, to buy food, or to take care of their children. But it might be something else -some people are very poor for not having any company - sometimes there are old or sick people who no one visits - they might have everything they need in terms of a shelter over their heads, or food to eat - but they still might have no one to keep them company, to talk, or just to sit with a little while. They also are a kind of poor people, and they deserve to share a part of what we have. remember the words in the first reading, what God tells the people? He says, “If you want to make me happy, if you want to bring me gift that is worthy and acceptable to me, then here is what you should do: share your bread with the hungry, give the homeless a roof over their heads, and provide clothes for those who need them, and do not turn your back on the suffering of other people. When you do these things, then your light will break forth from you like the light of the dawn, and your soul will be healed."

So another thing we can try to do during this Lent, and there are many ways to do it - is to reach out to the poor, to the sad and weary, and to the lonely, and give them a part of your happiness, a part of the good things that you have and that you can share with them. And again, if you do this, then when Easter comes, you will know even more how happy a day Easter really is, and what joy there is in the promise that Christ gives us on Easter morning.

And that brings me to the last thing we can do to make Lent special, and it is what we call fasting. Now in the old days, and still now to a certain extent, fasting means not eating as much as we usually eat, or it means giving up doing something that we usually do, and that we do not really like to do without - like spending money on video games, or eating too much ice cream, or listening to too much music when we should probably be studying or doing things to help out around the house.

But fasting is also something much deeper, much more serious than just doing without our creature comforts. You remember what we just heard in the Gospel - some of the people around Jesus wanted to know why He and the Apostles did not fast, because everyone thought that to be a good person, you had to fast a certain amount every week. And Christ told them, “Right now, I am with my friends here on earth, and they can only be happy because I am with them. But the day is coming when I will go away, and they will have to wait to see me again, and then there will be fasting enough, for they will be doing without me, without seeing me, without having me here to tell them exactly what to do, and to take care of all the problems that they cannot solve."

Now we know that Christ is truly with us in Holy Communion, and that any time we need to talk to Him, we have but to call to Him in prayer, or to go to Mass and receive Him, to know that He is still a part of us ,and that we are a part of Him.

But still, He did leave us when He ascended into heaven, and it is true that we will not see Him again until we die, and He raises us to be with Him. That is why Easter morning is really so important- it is the day on which Christ Himself rose from the dead, to prove that He could do it, and to show that He could do it for us as well. Remember what He said? He said:

This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Dear children, the heart of fasting, the heart of doing without something that we wish we had, makes us feel even more, the joy we know we will feel when the promises come true. We are sad because Christ is not here with us, and that is a kind of fasting, but we know that we will be with Him someday, and then our joy will be great.

In the same way, and it is very sad, but you know how it is when you lose someone you love very much, just as we lost the life - the living with us, of our dear friend Parker Kane, who has been gone now for two years. And being without him, especially for those who knew him and loved him, is a kind of fasting, which will make our joy even greater, when we see him again in Heaven. And this is just a truth of life - that life itself is a kind of fasting, for we know that we will not be perfectly happy, until the day comes that we are all in Heaven together, with God, and with Mary, and with our Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that we will never be separated again. You can choose whatever kind of fasting you like to make this Lent special - the sisters and priests and your teachers will help you figure this out - but however you fast, always remember that the value of fasting, is to remind us of what lies ahead, of the dreams that will come true, and of the home that waits us, if we are good, if we do what God wants us to do, and if we love one another, and take care of one another.

Well, as usual, I have gone on longer than I should, but only because this season of Lent is one of the great things about our Church, and about what makes us so important to one another and to God. I want you to think about this between now and Easter - you have forty days to think about it - and I want you to know, that every day, I will be praying for you, that your Lent is a good one, that you will be able to help many people, and that when Easter finally comes, it will be the best Easter you have ever had. God bless you all, and keep you safe.

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