Fr. Nate's Letter - April 6, 2025

Not far from where my family lives there is a path that comes to life with ambitious high school and college students around this time each year. Most use it either because they’re part of a track and field team, or perhaps because they are hopeful of being part of one. Sometimes the coach is off to the side, waiting, encouraging, (or shouting), urging them on, monitoring their time. When the runners approach the street crossings, cars on the road need to wait as a squad of young people crosses. Of course, a thought that often comes to mind as we are waiting is, “I used to be able to move like that!” And these young runners aren’t limited to the path by my family home - the other day when pulling out of a parking lot nearby, I had to once again wait for an army of students out for their run. 
 
As you may know, it is a requirement for priests and religious to recite the Evening Prayer of the Church (the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours) each day. The calendar of prayers is the same each year, but there’s something this season that always catches my attention. Every single Sunday of Lent uses exactly the same scripture, a small portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, in which he says, “While all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, the award goes to one man. In that case, run so as to win! Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things. They do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we, a crown that is imperishable.” It’s a striking example! There were, no doubt, plenty of athletes in the community to which Paul wrote, and we ourselves deny ourselves all sorts of things in order to get in shape or stay in shape. Every time we visit the doctor, he or she probably gives us reminders of all the things we need to do or to avoid to meet our health goals. And as this image from St. Paul is held up each week during Lent, it must also tell us something about our spiritual goals during Lent. It is as though St. Paul is standing there (and the rest of the saints as well) urging us, “Run so as to win! You can do it! Your efforts are worth it! It’s for something that will never be taken away!”
 
Usually, around this time of Lent, the work, or the run, gets hard (or maybe it started out difficult and just gets more difficult). Using the example of the runners, maybe we’re a little winded - you always see those runners blushed in the face. Or maybe we’re like some of the runners (you often see one or two or maybe more) who lag behind or give up. Discouragement is evident on their faces and their mannerisms say, “I quit.” I suppose that can be us at times. Maybe it didn’t take long after Lent began to lose sight of our resolutions (prayer, fasting or almsgiving), but the message of the saints, like our coaches, is the same: “You can do this! Run so as to win!” Or maybe we never really changed anything for Lent. If so, it is not too late to start! The Lord is still looking for our hearts. It’s a request he never rescinds but one that calls for a new response each day. We show that we want to give him our heart through our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. 
 
A sad part of Lent is that when it comes to a close, many of us relax our efforts in the good we were doing. Why give up? We don’t do good things to go back to our old selves. If I was able to make Mass each day during Lent, why stop?! The Lord wants to spend a few moments with me! Or perhaps, it was praying the rosary or some other form of prayer - why give up? If our Lenten resolution was tackling a particular fault or vice, or one thing or another that makes us become less than we should be, the demons of discouragement and laziness are only waiting to tear down the good that, by God’s grace, we’ve begun. So why stop now?
 
Run so as to win! Run so as to win! The fact that St. Paul repeats it in the evening prayer each week is always something that calls our attention. The saints are there cheering us on!
 
I hope that it continues to be (or begins to be) a fruitful Lent! 
 
Wishing you all God’s blessings this week! 
 
Keeping you in prayer, and say one for me!
 
- Fr. Nate