INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINE
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
the early Christians observed with great devotion
   the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection,
and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration
   there should be a forty–day season of spiritual preparation.

During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.
It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins
   and had separated themselves from the community of faith
      were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness,
   and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded
   of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ
      and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of our Sacred Heart Community,
   to observe a holy Lent:
   by self–examination and repentance;
   by prayer, fasting, and self–acts of charity;
   and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word.