Febuary 22nd

February 22, 2023
Ash Wednesday
Mr. Julian Ohizu: Campus Minster
Joel 2:12-18; 2 Cor 5:20—6:2; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

In this reflection, I am going to share with you my understanding of the meaning of Lent
and Ash Wednesday. Also, I will use this medium to lay down how the Holy Cross Catholic
school community will commit to living out Lenten spirituality during this season. Lent is the
forty-day liturgical season of fasting, special prayer, and almsgiving in preparation for Easter.
The name “Lent” is from the Middle English “Lencten,” meaning spring; its more primitive
ecclesiastical name was the “forty days,” “Quadragesima” in Latin, or “tessaracoste” in Greek.
The number “forty” is first noted in the Canons of Nicaea (A.D. 325), in imitation of Jesus’ fast
in the desert before His public ministry (with Old Testament precedent in Moses and Elijah). By
the fourth century, in most of the West, it referred to six day fast per week of six weeks (Sundays
were excluded).
During Lent, we are invited to follow Jesus and enter the wilderness to prepare ourselves
for times of testing and to become more aware of how God is present in our lives and around us. 
It is a time to get away from the busyness of life, simplify our lives, look at ourselves and our
lives, and reflect on how our lives have and can have meaning in the world.  We are all
constantly a work in progress, and Lent (entering the wilderness) is a time for us to return to
God.
The readings of today focus on the three traditional practices that have been taken up during
Lent.
Prayer (Justice Towards God)
Jesus in the Gospel passage of today lays down the criteria for perfect prayer. He says
“but when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
Fasting (Justice Towards Self)
Again, Jesus stresses the most important disposition for fasting during this season of
Lent. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites…But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay
you.”
Almsgiving (Justice Towards Neighbor)
It is striking to see how Jesus cautions Christians on their disposition towards
almsgiving. “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see
them…When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do…But
when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your
almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

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Jesus through these three lessons is teaching us that our actions during this season of
Lent are something that should come from the deepest part of our being which is our heart.
Jesus is telling us that during this period, that our heart is the most important to God. It is in
this manner and attitude of searching our hearts that God calls us to be mindful in the first
and second readings of today, and in the Responsorial Psalm and Psalm verse before the
Gospel.
In the first reading, God through the Prophet Joel calls us to return to him with our whole
hearts, fasting and weeping. This echoes the same message of St. Paul in his second letter to the
Corinthians where he urges us on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God. There is only one
reason why St. Paul believes we should reconcile with God because we are ambassadors of
Christ. In the readings of today, we hear that assurance from the Prophet Joel, St. Paul, and
Jesus himself that God is waiting for us to welcome us back to Himself because our God is
gracious and merciful; our God is slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in
punishment.
The Psalmist hands out to us what we should be doing and saying when we return to
the Lord. We should be saying, “be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” But as the
summary of the readings today, the Psalmist echoes through the verse before the Gospel by
admonishing us begging, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 95:8).
During this Lent, it is important we realize the importance of returning to the Lord. We must
return to God because He is our Creator, and we belong to him alone. Even though we sin
against God, as our Maker, God is always gracious and merciful to receive us back and
reconcile us to himself. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God is waiting to welcome us
back.
The Holy Cross Catholic High School family, and in the spirit of Lent will engage in
different spiritual activities, projects, and campaigns during this season of Lent as a way for
us to search our hearts, seek reconciliations and seek ways to be better Christians in our love
of God and neighbor.
The Stations of the Cross
Every Thursday, students, and staff at Holy Cross Catholic High School will gather in the
Chapel or in the garden to pray the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross or Via Crucis
refer both to a series of depictions of Christ’s journey from the court of Pontius Pilate to the
tomb and to a short pilgrimage centered around these stations. The campus minister has been
getting materials ready for this spiritual exercise and we are all excited to dive into this prayer as
a significant way to journey with our Lord Jesus Christ as he goes to calvary to die for our sins.
According to the Catholic Online Encyclopedia, “The object of the Stations of the Cross is to
help the faithful to make in spirit, as it were, a pilgrimage to the chief scenes of Christ's
sufferings and death.” Most simply, the Stations of the Cross, usually performed during Lent,
especially on Fridays and Good Friday, are about remembering Christ’s suffering for our sake.
This is evidenced by the typical Catholic prayer uttered at each station:
Guide: We adore you O Christ and we praise you,
All:  Because by your holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.

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Students at Holy Cross will not only participate at the Stations of the Cross but individual
students will be given the opportunity to pray at one station during those times.

Lent Daily Reflection
On this Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023, the Holy Cross Catholic High School
community will gather to celebrate the beginning of the Lenten season with a Holy Mass and
each of us will be able to receive ashes on his or her forehead.  As part of our Lent program and
commitment to journey with Christ throughout these forty days and forty nights, Holy Cross
Catholic High School community will immerse ourselves in Scripture as a way of understanding
the will of God this season of Lent. Therefore, each day of lent, one student or staff will be asked
to write and present a reflection on the daily Scripture readings of the day. Each person will also
be able to reflect on the meaning of lent and how they integrate Lenten practices into their lives.
These reflections will be shared here on our website.
Throughout this season of Lent, we will commit to fasting and prayer for peace in the
world, especially for peace between Ukraine and Russia, and in other countries such as Nigeria,
Nicaragua, Yemen, Somalia, etc. We will commit to praying for Turkey and Syria who were
affected by a terrible earthquake.
The 40-Day Lent Challenge
In this 40-Day Challenge, students will be given the opportunity to ask certain questions.
What do you think Jesus did and experienced in the wilderness for those 40 days and 40 long
nights? The answer is that Jesus went directly from his baptism to the wilderness before he began
his ministry.  He was actually driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.  He was there for a
purpose: to prepare for what was to come: to prepare for his ministry and his journey to the cross
and the resurrection.  So, he fasted, prayed, and prepared as he got away from everything.
The goal is for each student to challenge themselves this year and go beyond the usual
practice of “giving up something for Lent.” Students will think of things that they can do by
thinking outside the box to help them do works of charity, engage in fasting, almsgiving, and the
service of their neighbor and worship of God. They will also fill the Google doc calendar with
their ideas and activities. Students will complete their calendars every day and submit them to
the campus minister/theology teacher for grading. This is part of their assessment for the Spring
Semester.

The Lent Day of Retreat
This year 2023 Lent, we would have one retreat on March 2, facilitated by NET
Ministries missionaries. On March 30, we would have Lenten Day of Recollection. On March 2,
we will gather to celebrate our Lent retreat and reconciliation service. But it is very good that
before we dismiss going on our Easter break and summer vacations, we take a moment to reflect
on the life we lived in the past year and the past 40 days of Lent. In this retreat, we will use the
opportunity to seek God’s face in order to be in a good relationship with God and ourselves. For
it is fitting for us to do so. In this retreat, we break from our usual routines to observe a day of

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prayer, reconciliation, and meditation before the holiest time of year. As a Catholic school, we
take time to reflect on the Paschal Mystery: the life, suffering, death, and ultimate resurrection of
Jesus. So please note, the school offers us this time away from readings and tests so that we
might enter more fully into the celebrations of our Church in the days ahead. So, what are these?
Holy Week is the holiest of the weeks of the year.
Finally, on this Ash Wednesday, we come together like the people of the Old Testament
to remind ourselves that we do not always follow God’s ways and need to ask God for His mercy
and forgiveness. Like God’s people in the time of the prophets, we wear ashes to show that we
want to turn away from whatever keeps us from God and to have a change of heart so that we
can live in the right relationship with God and each other. On Ash Wednesday, the priest or
person giving out ashes rubs us on our forehead in the shape of a cross while saying: Repent and
believe in the Gospel or Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel. For Catholics, Ash
Wednesday is also a day of fasting and abstaining from meat. Fasting reminds us that food alone
cannot make us happy. We must also be fed with prayer, with God’s Word, and by meeting Jesus
in the Sacraments, especially the Reconciliation and Eucharist (the Mass). The small sacrifices
we make during Lent make room in our hearts to welcome the risen Jesus at Easter.
May God bless us all during this season of Lent!
Thank you.
Mr. Julian Ohizu
Campus Minister