Lenten Challenges
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This Lent, join the parish in weekly challenges from our pastor, Father Rick Nagel. Each Sunday Father Nagel will give the parish a new weekly Lenten challenge. Check back here to see what the newest Lenten Challenge is each week.
See below for all Lenten Challenges as each week of Lent passes. |
Weekly Challenges:
Holy Week | Week of April 9
Attend all Holy Week Triduum services: Holy Thursday 7 pm Mass of the Lords Supper, Altar of Repose Pilgrimage following Mass , Good Friday Service at 3 pm, Holy Saturday Easter Vigil at 7 pm or Easter Sunday Mass at 8am and 10 am. Please note we do not have a 7pm Mass on Easter Sunday.
Take off work Thursday evening - Sunday, keep your calendar clean and really enter into a deeper love of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection! Invite and challenge others to join you! Click here to see a complete schedule for Holy Week and Easter at St. John's.
5th Sunday of Lent | Week of April 2
Lenten Pillar = Prayer
Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet daily for the Poor Souls of Purgatory. The Gospel for the 5th week of Lent is about the death of Jesus' friend Lazarus. Reread and pray with this Gospel and consider how those who have died may need our prayers for purification on their journey home to heaven. Perhaps each day you may want to pray for a particular loved one who has died.
4th Sunday of Lent | Week of March 26
Lenten Pillar = Almsgiving
Write a letter to someone thanking them for their guidance, support or encouragement in your faith journey.
3rd Sunday of Lent | Week of March 19
Fast from all drinks other than water
Lenten Pillar = Fasting
This week's Lenten challenge is to fast from all drinks other than water. Each time one desires another drink they can turn to water only and be reminded of the powerful message of this week's Gospel, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." -John 4
This is a powerful reminder that like the woman at the well, nothing can fill us except the love of God! As we fast from other desired drinks, let us be emptied of worldly appetites and be reminded of that thirst that can only be quenched by God himself.
2nd Sunday of Lent | Week of March 12
Read the book: "Deep Conversion - Deep Prayer"
Lenten Pillar = Prayer
The book can be found free online at FORMED, parish code BJ3WEB. Learn more about signing up for FORMED here: http://www.stjohnsindy.org/formed.html It is also available through Ignatius Press. This is the book we are using for our Lenten Book Study as a parish and is an excellent resource to help one be totally committed to deep relationship with God, through the power of prayer.The book is 120 pages and very accessible, yet challenging! While the faith formation commission and I selected the book over a month ago, I had not read it's entirety until this past week. Wow! What a great read for Lent as Father Dubay gives solid practical advice for deepening moral and spiritual conversion, and for a radical growth in holiness.
1st Sunday of Lent | Week of March 5
Cleanse Your Closets
Corporal Work of Mercy = Cloth the Naked
Take some time this coming week to go through your closets, drawers, attic, storage areas and sort out all the clothes, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, blankets, sleeping bags that you haven't used recently. Donate those to the St. John's Garden Door Ministry to help support our local homeless and poor neighbors who go without the basic needs of life. Our young adult community will sort all donations during a Friday Night Gathering and get it ready to be given to those in need. Any extra's we cannot use will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul here in Indy to help others locally.
Drop all donations (in bags) in or next to the wooden box (labeled Garden Door Donations) in the south side of the narthex of the Church. For sorting purposes please drop donations by Thursday, March 23. Thanks for your generosity to those in need!
Attend all Holy Week Triduum services: Holy Thursday 7 pm Mass of the Lords Supper, Altar of Repose Pilgrimage following Mass , Good Friday Service at 3 pm, Holy Saturday Easter Vigil at 7 pm or Easter Sunday Mass at 8am and 10 am. Please note we do not have a 7pm Mass on Easter Sunday.
Take off work Thursday evening - Sunday, keep your calendar clean and really enter into a deeper love of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection! Invite and challenge others to join you! Click here to see a complete schedule for Holy Week and Easter at St. John's.
5th Sunday of Lent | Week of April 2
Lenten Pillar = Prayer
Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet daily for the Poor Souls of Purgatory. The Gospel for the 5th week of Lent is about the death of Jesus' friend Lazarus. Reread and pray with this Gospel and consider how those who have died may need our prayers for purification on their journey home to heaven. Perhaps each day you may want to pray for a particular loved one who has died.
4th Sunday of Lent | Week of March 26
Lenten Pillar = Almsgiving
Write a letter to someone thanking them for their guidance, support or encouragement in your faith journey.
3rd Sunday of Lent | Week of March 19
Fast from all drinks other than water
Lenten Pillar = Fasting
This week's Lenten challenge is to fast from all drinks other than water. Each time one desires another drink they can turn to water only and be reminded of the powerful message of this week's Gospel, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." -John 4
This is a powerful reminder that like the woman at the well, nothing can fill us except the love of God! As we fast from other desired drinks, let us be emptied of worldly appetites and be reminded of that thirst that can only be quenched by God himself.
2nd Sunday of Lent | Week of March 12
Read the book: "Deep Conversion - Deep Prayer"
Lenten Pillar = Prayer
The book can be found free online at FORMED, parish code BJ3WEB. Learn more about signing up for FORMED here: http://www.stjohnsindy.org/formed.html It is also available through Ignatius Press. This is the book we are using for our Lenten Book Study as a parish and is an excellent resource to help one be totally committed to deep relationship with God, through the power of prayer.The book is 120 pages and very accessible, yet challenging! While the faith formation commission and I selected the book over a month ago, I had not read it's entirety until this past week. Wow! What a great read for Lent as Father Dubay gives solid practical advice for deepening moral and spiritual conversion, and for a radical growth in holiness.
1st Sunday of Lent | Week of March 5
Cleanse Your Closets
Corporal Work of Mercy = Cloth the Naked
Take some time this coming week to go through your closets, drawers, attic, storage areas and sort out all the clothes, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, blankets, sleeping bags that you haven't used recently. Donate those to the St. John's Garden Door Ministry to help support our local homeless and poor neighbors who go without the basic needs of life. Our young adult community will sort all donations during a Friday Night Gathering and get it ready to be given to those in need. Any extra's we cannot use will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul here in Indy to help others locally.
Drop all donations (in bags) in or next to the wooden box (labeled Garden Door Donations) in the south side of the narthex of the Church. For sorting purposes please drop donations by Thursday, March 23. Thanks for your generosity to those in need!
