Lenten journey
Parishes provide assistance as Catholics journey to Easter Sunday

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
March 15, 2007

As the weeks roll on toward Easter Sunday, Catholics across the Valley continue to spiritually prepare themselves for that holy day through a regimen of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

They’re not alone as they head to Calvary and the empty tomb. Parishes throughout the diocese are offering the faithful many opportunities to make this Lent a time for spiritual growth.

“I’m really impressed,” said Karlie Loya, surveying the crowd of about 100 that gathered for a soup dinner at St. Joseph Parish in Phoenix.

St. Joseph’s Men’s Club has been organizing the Friday meatless dinners for nearly four years now. They provide soup and grilled cheese sandwiches to the parishioners for a small donation.

“The men’s club does a fine job,” Loya smiled. “The food is great.”

That’s thanks to one of the men’s club members who used to own a restaurant in Phoenix, said Joe Lusson, president of the club. Another member produces homemade bread bowls for the dinners.

“It works out good,” Lusson said. “Last time we didn’t have enough tables for everyone.”

The popular meals bring the community together in a spirit of abstaining from meat on Lenten Fridays. It also helps them get to know one another better.

“I’ve been a parishioner here for seven or eight years and I’m ashamed to admit that I hardly knew anyone,” Loya said. The dinners help him put names to the faces he sees every week at Mass.

After the parishioners eat and socialize, they move en masse to the church for the Stations of the Cross.

Lusson said that one of the reasons the men’s club began hosting the dinners was to draw more people to the Stations. Before the dinners, about 50 people would come.

“Now, we’re over 200,” he said.

Deacon Harry Schwan has led the parish’s Stations of the Cross for the past 11 years. He has witnessed an increase in participation throughout the years, especially this Lent.

On the Friday after Ash Wednesday, he ran out of booklets for the devotion. He had to order another hundred.

“It’s great for the parish,” he said. “Something like this brings people closer together.”

As he led the parishioners through the Way of the Cross, the mix of seniors, young families and teens knelt and rose, singing hymns as he moved from station to station.

Deacon Schwan hopes that the benefits gained through the shared meals and prayer will carry on after the season, “because next month, it’s over already.”

Beyond the penitential practices like abstaining from meat and the intensified prayer life of the parish, Deacon Schwan said the parishioners have also embraced the third Lenten practice of almsgiving.

They’ve already met their Charity and Development Appeal goal for the year.

Across town at Corpus Christi Parish, the almsgiving from the community has reached “miraculous” proportions, said Fr. Albert Hoorman.

Since the pastor’s 40th anniversary as a priest fell during Lent this year, he came up with a different idea for a celebration.

He challenged the parish to donate 40,000 cans of food.

As of March 5, the parish had donated more than 60,000, with more coming in every day.

“We decided that another word for almsgiving is mercy, so I wanted to see what would happen,” said Fr. Hoorman of organizing the charitable drive.

The parish’s children who sold cookies and lemonade after Mass to raise the money for purchasing the canned food particularly moved him.

“A lot of prayers went into it,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed by it all.”

Fr. Hoorman preaches almsgiving every Lent. On Ash Wednesday his parish takes a special collection for the poor.

“I think that really sends a good message. It makes them more aware of the poor, the less fortunate in our society,” he said. “What I like is that people are talking about it.”

The success of the food drive and the weekly soup dinners and Stations of the Cross that Corpus Christi also offers help make the parishioners “pray-ers,” Fr. Hoorman said. An active spiritual life shown by prayer, fasting and almsgiving will prepare them for Easter.

“It’s made people aware that we really are in Lent,” he said. “I’m happy.”