Dear Parents,

    Lent is a time to reflect and focus on our relationship with God. Lent and God call us to better our interaction with God and turn away from selfishness. We, fortunately, do not have to sacrifice a family member, however, we need to move closer to God by words and actions. Pope Francis last year said, "We are all in process of incorporating God's gift to us in the self sacrifice of Jesus." We are called to align ourselves with Jesus, to imitate Him both internally by deepening that prayerful relationship and externally by incorporating our Faith in the way we deal with everyone.

    We are thankful that we are not called to make the ultimate sacrifice, but we need to ask does God call to us as at our core as faith-filled Christians? As communities of Faith, hope and love, we are called to imitate Christ at this time of year more than at any other. And as these thoughts and actions take root, we increase our journey on the path of abundant life that God calls us during Lent and always.

   The current path at St. Francis is reflective and engrossing. On Fridays, we are called to give up our lunch money for a rice and gravy meal to help Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. Later in the month, we will be called to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation during the day to help prepare the entire St. Francis community for the gift that is Easter.

    Please be sure to also mark your calendars and see further details in the newsletter and our weekly email reminders regarding Re-registration, Freshman Registration, The Eucharistic Congress and when you might catch some baseball, softball, tennis, track or a trip to Orlando to see our Robotics team compete.

  Congratulations to our Spanish students who competed and brought home five first place ribbons, three for second place and one third place ribbon and overall added a third place trophy in the Brain Brawl at Spanish Regionals.

   Lent - May Jesus help us to make our relationship with God stronger through the sacrifices on our paths.