Lenten Prayer Books and CRS Rice Bowls available February 11

Lenten Prayer Books and CRS Rice Bowls will be made available to all parishioners beginning Saturday, February 11. 2023.  The Little Black Book for Lent. Reflections begin February 19, 2023, end Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023. Reflections will be based on the Passion narrative of Matthew.

Also available will be the CRS Rice Bowl and program information.  The program invites Catholics to live in solidarity with our poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters through the three Lenten pillars of praying, fasting, and almsgiving.  When you give to CRS Rice Bowl, 75% of your donations support CRS’ humanitarian relief programs in nearly 100 countries worldwide. The remaining 25% of your donations go to hunger and poverty alleviation efforts here within the Archdioceses of Indianapolis as part of the Matthew 25: CRS Rice Bowl Grant. Electronic or recurring donations are now available. Scan the QR code on the collection container.

These items will be in pews and on courtesy tables at all entrances. Parishioners in long-term care centers have already received copies.

Rice bowls and old palm branches may be returned at all church entrances beginning Palm Sunday, April 2 through Divine Mercy Sunday, April 16,  Since blessed palms are a sacramental, a reminder that what was once nimble, fresh and supple becomes fragile and brittle over time, they need to be disposed of in a proper manner. It is our custom to take those blessed palms, burn them and use them for the ashes that, next year, are sprinkled or traced on our heads as a reminder that we “are dust and to dust we shall return.”

For more information about the Lenten Prayer Books, contact Ms. Jess Fischer, Evangelization and Catechesis Coordinator, at 812-357-6065 (voicemail) and the CRS Rice Bowls, contact Ms. Sue Kloeck, Service and Outreach Commission Chair at 812-549-6790.