Follow Me ‘Recalculating’ for Lent By Bishop Terry R. LaValley

March 5, 2025

The following is Bishop Terry R. LaValley’s homily for Ash Wednesday.

I use my GPS an awful lot when I’m traveling. I used to have a GPS that often barked a word at me that I found increasingly annoying. In fact, eventually I ended up getting a new GPS which never uses that dreaded word, that word being, of course: “recalculating.” As I’ve mentioned before, reflecting on what should be my focus today, Ash Wednesday, “recalculating” came to mind.

I mean, isn’t Lent about taking an honest look at where I am presently, realizing that too often that I’m on the wrong track, that I am not following Jesus very closely? I may get lazy, indifferent, or just plain selfish and stubborn and decide to take detours or another route in my life’s journey and leave the Lord in the dust. Or I may, in all honesty, just get lost and lose my sense of divine direction.

God knows things happen in our world, our families, our communities, yes, even in our Church that causes us or maybe our loved ones to veer off God’s route to our eternal destination. We lose our bearings. Heaven, eternal life is no longer considered a destination and is wiped off our instrument panel. Some no longer tend to their souls or cultivate a relationship with Jesus.

So, Lent 2025 comes just in time for me to be about the business of recalculating and redirecting where I’m headed. Perhaps, you as well. The Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and acts of charity, for centuries, have been tried and true personal means or tools to help us remain faithful as Catholic Christians. My sisters and brothers, I hope you will join me in embracing this graced time provided by the Church to recalculate. Your being here today speaks loudly of your intention to do just that. I am grateful.

Every year the Church begins this sacred season by providing for us the truly hopeful words of the prophet Joel who says even now, it’s never too late to return to God’s ways—even now. And then, St. Paul, in his letter to the people of Corinth, chimes in with the message: “Now is a very acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.” In addition to more intense prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we can make a greater effort to participate at more daily Masses, Stations of the Cross, special parish Lenten programs, spend a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, celebrate the Sacrament of Penance. I encourage you to think about joining some of the parish’s social groups such as the Knights of Columbus, Our Lady’s Social Outreach, Alpha, Project Rachel, Legion of Mary, Elizabeth Ministry or the Gabriel Project.

May I make one other suggestion for you this Lent: designate someone to bring along with you on your Lenten journey. Perhaps you can adopt a Lenten companion, someone you know who is struggling with his or her faith, someone for whom Jesus has become a stranger, someone who doesn’t appear to have heaven as a destination in their life. Invite him or her to either literally or in your prayer to accompany you through your Lenten journey.

Invite that person to be your Lenten companion as you personally recalculate and try to draw closer to Jesus. For that person, you can become a beacon of hope during this Jubilee Year of Hope. You see, we are all companions on the journey of life and we need the support and sometimes the challenge of our sisters and brothers as fellow pilgrims in faith. As we calculate the cost of ignoring our mission to growing closer to Jesus and, through Him, one another, we come to understand the fear, confusion, anger and violence so characteristic of today’s world. We have lost our bearings.

We will soon be marked with ashes that remind us, in all humility, of where we came from and where we are headed. We are determined, through the grace of God, to get to know, love and follow Jesus more closely. We know the blessings we have received are too many to calculate, and that it’s not too late to recalculate and make the three-point turn (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or make the U-turns we need to take to stay close to Jesus. We have every reason to be Hope-filled because we are Christ-led and Christ-fed. May God be praised…forever may God be praised.