Bishop Solis celebrates Mass on Ash Wednesday

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Bishop Oscar A. Solis celebrated Mass at Judge Memorial Catholic High School on March 2, which was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

Bishop Oscar A. Solis celebrated Mass at Judge Memorial Catholic High School on March 2, which was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The season of Lent “is a time when we look into our hearts and into our souls on how we live our lives as children of God,” the bishop said in his homily. The message of the ashes received on that day is that “we are nothing and God is everything,” he said. Human beings are created to be in union with God, but sin causes separation. However, the Creator, with graciousness and love “opened the door for our reconciliation with him, and that is why, during Ash Wednesday, God exhorts us to penance, repentance and conversion of heart,” he said. The Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are not ends in themselves, but rather means of reconciliation with God, he added. Lenten sacrifices are intended to help reestablish an intimate relationship with God, and bring a conversion of heart and a change of life “so that we become Christ-like, people who love as God loves us,” he said.