The 2023 Lent season has begun, a solemn 40-day period of reflection, prayer, preparation and fasting before Easter
The Catholic Community of Northbrook (also referred to as St. Norbert and Our Lady of the Brook Parish) and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church (OLPH) in Glenview, have Lenten calendars which include Stations of the Cross and special presentations.
More Top Picks Best Weighted Blankets For Seniors
St. Norbert was among Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic parishes and schools hosting palm burning ceremonies for Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent (on Feb. 22). Easter Sunday is April 9.
The previous year’s palm leaves are burned to create ashes offered to mark people on Ash Wednesday. Priests bless the ashes before distributing them during Ash Wednesday observances.
On the afternoon of Feb. 21, on what was also known as Fat Tuesday 2023 for many before Lent, approximately 150 students of St. Norbert School gathered in front of St. Norbert Church (1809 Walters Ave.) at the corner of Walters Avenue and Spruce Street to watch the palms burned.
The public palm burning ceremony included prayer and words of encouragement by Rev. Christopher Gustafson, pastor of St. Norbert and Our Lady of the Brook Parish.
“We need to have our faith public in a society that sometimes says, keep your faith private,” Gustafson said. “It’s not meant to be private.
“Certainly we’re a sacramental church and it’s wonderful when we involve all the senses.”
The burning of the palms,” Gustafson said, represents, “the palms, of course, that were used to honor our Lord as he came into Jerusalem to embrace his passion and now these palms are burned and become the ashes that call us to a life of repentance and opening ourselves more fully.”
A desired outcome is, “just letting go of the stuff, all the things in our life that prevent us from being open to his grace,” Gustafson said.
Palms were collected from sources including parishioners who kept palms (behind crucifixes at home, for example) from Palm Sunday 2022. The dried palms burned for Northbrook Lent 2023 amounted to a fire supply lasting about 20 minutes.
“It connects the whole liturgical year,” Gustafson said of the palm burning cycle.
“It’s a holy season … I love doing it with the kids because they get that, they understand the physical, and the spiritual and we’re trying to do all of that.
“It’s a real blessed opportunity, not just for them (the students) but for the whole parish,” Gustafson said. “Lent is a special time.”
Tuesday’s weather was milder for the outdoor ceremony. Students gathered on the church steps and watched while Rogelio Saenz of Northbrook, maintenance staff member with St. Norbert, started the blaze in a portable fire pit placed a safe distance on the concrete corner plaza.
Maggie Hoody, St. Norbert School principal, said about the children, “I hope that they learn the symbolism behind the year of our Catholic calendar and all of the events that go with that, understanding that the celebration of Easter becomes the ashes that mark the beginning of Lent.”
Rev. Ismael Garcia Sainz, associate pastor of St. Norbert and Our Lady of the Brook Parish, said, “It is an experience of us starting Lent which calls us to repentance and to remember that everything we do on this Earth, it will come to an end, we’ll go to the grave but our faith tells us that there’s something else.”
Madelyn Fernandez of Northbrook, 3, and sibling Jayden, 5, attended the palm burning ceremony with their mother St. Norbert parishioner Michelle Fernandez.
“I just want them to know how important it is to come to church and how important Easter is and the preparation for Easter,” Michelle Fernandez said about Madelyn and Jayden.
“This is the first step, right? I don’t want them to miss this,” the children’s mother added.
“I don’t want them to miss Ash Wednesday services.”
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church (1775 Grove St.) also had Ash Wednesday masses and unique observances.
Rev. Jeremiah Boland, OLPH pastor, was seen on Ash Wednesday offering Glenview train station fellowship.
Boland, who was shown with the marking of the ashes on his forehead, posted his picture on Facebook alongside train commuters, saying, “May your Lent be blessed!”
To Pioneer Press, Boland said, “Lent is the season of personal renewal.”
Boland said questions to ask oneself include, “How can I be a better person? What habits have developed in my life that bring out the best or the worse?
“Ash Wednesday begins the journey,” Boland added. ” All journeys have a beginning.
“The burning of the palms recalls we are dust and unto dust we shall return.”
More Top Picks Best Clip On Magnifiers For Glasses
Boland also said, “This year we continue to heal from the pandemic.
“There are new challenges that face us as individuals and as a community to be more authentic disciples.”
OLPH’s Glenview Lenten calendar promotes a Communal Reconciliation Service on Wed., Mar. 22 at 7 p.m. at St. Norbert Church (1809 Walters Ave.) in Northbrook.
View the OLPH Lenten calendar at (https://olphglenview.org/sites/default/files/documents/2023-02/LentCalendar2023-1-R1.pdf). Also visit https://olphglenview.org.
View the parish calendar for the Catholic Community of Northbrook at https://www.northbrookcatholic.church.
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.