Ash Wednesday

Wednesday 14 February is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. It is designated by the Church as a day of fast and abstinence, as is Good Friday.
In current Catholic practice, fasting means having only one full meal a day. Alternately smaller quantities of food may be eaten at two other times but no food should be consumed at any other time during the day. The law of fasting applies to people from 18 to 59 years old.

Abstinence is the practice of abstaining from the use of certain kinds of food. Everyone aged 14 years and older is bound by the law of abstinence from meat. The practice of fasting and abstinence aims at leading us to interior conversion by making us more disciplined and more charitable. We fast in order to share our time and our treasure with an attitude of love towards God and others. In addition, the practice helps us imitate the example of Jesus who fasted for 40 days in the desert.

The ashes that are marked on our foreheads on the first day of Lent are a symbol of humility, purification and sorrow and remind us of the need to repent of our failings.

Caloundra Ash Wednesday Mass rosters

If you are attending any of the  Ash Wednesday Masses at Caloundra (7am|9am|6.30pm) and can assist in the liturgical roles, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you please put your name down in a spot that needs filling, the folders are in the church. Thank you for your continued support.

Planned Giving Envelopes

Planned giving envelopes are ready for collection. Please collect your envelopes from the church, if they are not there please contact the Parish office.

International TV Journalist, and Catholic Evangelist, Jo Hayes – who is leading our Lenten Mini Mission from 19-21 February at OLR church – is launching a new website resource on Lectio Divina, in time for Word of God Sunday, 4 Feb 2024. Perfectly timed to coincide with the
Pope’s Year of Prayer, lectiomeditatio.com is a practical what/why/how to the ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina – ‘divine reading’.

“The Catholic Christian tradition exhorts members of the faithful to regularly read, and pray with, the Sacred Scriptures. Yet many fail to do so, mainly because they’ve never been shown how – and further, how daily devotional time, in The Word, can radically transform one’s life”, says Ms Hayes. “My life was powerfully
impacted, 7 years ago, when a religious sister walked me through the steps of Lectio Divina. “Since that first day, I have committed to a daily practice of, minimum, one hour, reading, meditating and studying the Sacred Scriptures. I am convinced, firstly because The Word of God says so, and secondly, through my own lived experience, that inti- macy with Scripture equates to intimacy with Christ. And a life overflowing with Holy Spirit power.”

LECTIO MEDITATIO, the name of the new website, guides users through 4 steps of Lectio Divina – reading, meditation/contemplation, prayer and activation. Ms Hayes says step 4, which isn’t typically included in traditional Lectio Divina formats, is an important step in allowing The Word to ‘come alive’ in our lives. “The Word of God, when implanted in our hearts through prayerful reading and meditation, is meant to practically transform our everyday life experience, through activation.” Ms Hayes, who has spent the past 15 years working as a broadcast journalist, in both mainstream and Catholic television and radio, travels extensively around the world as a lay evangelist, teaching and speaking on the power of Sacred Scripture, and the crucial importance of daily time with The Word of God.