Ash Wednesday: I am praying for all of you and our diocese as we begin the season of Lent today. We pray that in this time of salvation God will fill us with the Holy Spirit, purify our hearts, and strengthen us in love through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We can trust Him.
Lenten Message: The message of the Holy Father for Lent this year can be found at the bottom of this message. It is titled, “Let us Journey Together in Hope.” Its themes include 1) We are all on a journey 2) We are called to journey together and 3) We are called to journey together in hope. It is well worth reading.
Prayers: Together, let’s pray for good health for Pope Francis.
Retreat: I recently went on my annual silent retreat. Like all of you, I crave for silence and the encounter with God’s love.
Adoration: Today we kickoff Adoration for Peace our Spiritual Campaign for Eucharistic Adoration, in an effort to increase our love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. It is my hope that every member of the Faithful in the Diocese of Salina will have the opportunity to participate in regular Eucharistic Adoration at their parish. Call your parish office to find out who your parish Adoration Coordinator is and how you can participate.
Synodal: Last evening, I participated in Tuesday with the Diocese an online Adult Faith Formation program in collaboration with the Diocese of Dodge City and our diocese. The topic was synodality. I really enjoyed the time discussing this important topic. What is synodality? The final document describes synodality as “a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary, so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ.” We are called to follow the synodal path.
The Model: The final synod document states that Mary is the model to follow because she “listens, prays, meditates, dialogues, accompanies, discerns, decides, and acts.” Mary, please share with us your Immaculate Heart.
The Call: I encourage you to join the next Tuesday with the Diocese with other adults from the Dioceses of Dodge City and Salina to learn more about the Second Vatican Council The Universal Call of Holiness, presented by Fr. Frank Coady on March 25. Sign up HERE to connect via Zoom using your own device.
Migrants: I will say it again, my heart goes out to the migrants and refugees throughout our world. When thinking of them and encountering them, we must start with this foundational premise: migrants and refugees are God’s children and our brothers and sisters. To not believe this is not to believe in the great commandment: “Love God and love your neighbor.” God loves them. May we participate in God’s love.
Ukraine: I was asked to be the chair for the subcommittee on the Church for Central and Eastern Europe for the conference of bishops. I was also asked to go to Ukraine. I am going next week to visit our brothers and sisters there, many who have had to leave their home and experience the threats of bombs every day.
Rite of Election: The Rite of Election for those entering the Church at the Easter Vigil will take place this Sunday, March 9, at St. Nicholas of Myra in Hays and then the following Sunday, March 16, at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Salina.
Chrism Mass: All our welcome to attend the Chrism Mass on Thursday, April 10 at Sacred Heart Cathedral beginning at 11:30 am.
Confirmation: We are amid Confirmation season for the next couple of months. I always look forward to these liturgical celebrations.
Evangelization Conference: Sacred Heart in Colby is hosting an evangelization conference the last weekend of March. Find out more information and register to attend HERE. Hope to see you there. I appreciate the parish’s desire to share the greatest news of all time.
Change: I received the following testimony from someone recently.
“I wanted to share with you a message from last fall’s Eucharistic Conference that moved me to action. The final speaker said, “God Changes the Bread … The Bread Changes Us … We Change the World.” Those words brought me to the edge of my seat. In the second-grade classroom we teach transubstantiation. Such a huge word for kids. But liken it to Transformers and they understand. The cars become more powerful when transformed. Likewise, the host becomes more powerful through Transubstantiation. When the speaker said the phrase above, I heard, “God transforms the Bread … The Host transforms us … We transform the world.” I set out to create an image that we could imprint on the hearts of the kids. We’ll use this in the classroom, and they will later receive an imprinted shirt following their First Communion with the attached image.”
You Matter: Speaking of the Eucharistic Conference, Fr. John Riccardo was recently interviewed for the next issue of Faith Magazine. Fr. Riccardo will be the guest speaker at the 2025 Eucharistic Conference August 9-10 in Hays. Katie Hamel told me after interviewing him that she hopes everyone will be able to attend the Conference this year…me too.
Tears: A few weeks ago, I went to the Norton Correctional Facility to celebrate Mass and baptize four men and confirm them along with two others. One of the men told me that he read the Register and found out about praying the Memorare during this Jubilee Year of Hope. He said he prayed the Memorare for the first time. Afterwards, he told me he wept. We all need a Mother! Our Blessed Mother tells us, “Do you not know, that I am here, your Mother.”
Memorare: I have enjoyed receiving the prayer intentions connected with the Memorare cards. We pray for those intentions during our morning prayer at the office each day.
Kolbe: Speaking of prison ministry, we are having our first Kolbe Retreat (named after St. Maximilian Kolbe who was a prisoner in Auschwitz during World War II) at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. We need help. Please review the different volunteer ministries HERE to see if you could help in any way. Thanks for considering this!
With my love and prayers during this season of Lent,
Bishop Vincke
The following is the text of the Holy Father Francis’ Message for Lent 2025, on the theme “Let us journey together in hope“:
Dear brothers and sisters,
We begin our annual pilgrimage of Lent in faith and hope with the penitential rite of the imposition of ashes. The Church, our mother and teacher, invites us to open our hearts to God’s grace, so that we can celebrate with great joy the paschal victory of Christ the Lord over sin and death, which led Saint Paul to exclaim: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54-55). Indeed, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the heart of our faith and the pledge of our hope in the Father’s great promise, already fulfilled in his beloved Son: life eternal (cf. Jn 10:28; 17:3).[1]
This Lent, as we share in the grace of the Jubilee Year, I would like to propose a few reflections on what it means to journey together in hope, and on the summons to conversion that God in his mercy addresses to all of us, as individuals and as a community.
First of all, to journey. The Jubilee motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”, evokes the lengthy journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land, as recounted in the Book of Exodus. This arduous path from slavery to freedom was willed and guided by the Lord, who loves his people and remains ever faithful to them. It is hard to think of the biblical exodus without also thinking of those of our brothers and sisters who in our own day are fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? It would be a good Lenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant or foreigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father. This would be a good “examination of conscience” for all of us wayfarers.
Second, to journey together. The Church is called to walk together, to be synodal[2] Christians are called to walk at the side of others, and never as lone travelers. The Holy Spirit impels us not to remain self-absorbed, but to leave ourselves behind and keep walking towards God and our brothers and sisters.[3] Journeying together means consolidating the unity grounded in our common dignity as children of God (cf. Gal 3:26-28). It means walking side-by-side, without shoving or stepping on others, without envy or hypocrisy, without letting anyone be left behind or excluded. Let us all walk in the same direction, tending towards the same goal, attentive to one another in love and patience.
This Lent, God is asking us to examine whether in our lives, in our families, in the places where we work and spend our time, we are capable of walking together with others, listening to them, resisting the temptation to become self-absorbed and to think only of our own needs. Let us ask ourselves in the presence of the Lord whether, as bishops, priests, consecrated persons and laity in the service of the Kingdom of God, we cooperate with others. Whether we show ourselves welcoming, with concrete gestures, to those both near and far. Whether we make others feel a part of the community or keep them at a distance.[4] This, then, is a second call to conversion: a summons to synodality.
Third, let us journey together in hope, for we have been given a promise. May the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5), the central message of the Jubilee,[5] be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in the Encyclical Spe Salvi, “the human being needs unconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:38-39)”.[6] Christ, my hope, has risen![7] He lives and reigns in glory. Death has been transformed into triumph, and the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this: the resurrection of Christ!
This, then, is the third call to conversion: a call to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life. Let us ask ourselves: Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?
Sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”.[8] It moves the Church to pray for “everyone to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom, in the glory of heaven. This was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one” (The Exclamations of the Soul to God, 15:3).[9]
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope, intercede for us and accompany us on our Lenten journey.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 6 February 2025 Memorial of St Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs.
FRANCIS
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[1]Cf. Encyclical LetterDilexit Nos(24 October 2024), 220.
[2]Cf. Homily for the Mass and Canonization of Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Artemide Zatti, 9 October 2022.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid.
[5]Cf. BullSpes Non Confundit,1.
[6]Encyclical LetterSpe Salvi(30 November 2007), 26.
[7]Cf. Easter Sequence.
[8]Cf.Catechism of the Catholic Church,1820.
[9]Ibid, 1821.