Fr. Edmund McCullough, O.P.
Associate University Chaplain, Brown-RISD Catholic Community
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Lent begins in less than a week. For Catholics, as well as other Christians, it brings to mind “giving things up.” Symbolized by the ashes of Ash Wednesday, this is one of the few thoroughly recognizable Christian customs that popular culture can still identify. And so it might be useful to reflect briefly on what it means to “give things up.” Every religion has traditions of asceticism and renunciation. The particulars vary, but denying one’s self in some way forms a part of humanity’s religious existence on a fundamental level.
In the Catholic tradition, the only one for which I can really speak authoritatively, giving things up serves to detach us from created reality, and attaches us to Uncreated Reality. In more ordinary language, we detach from things in order to attach to God. We ask God to help us be less filled with ourselves, and more filled with him. Or we are like a child holding onto a toy in each hand, and have to set down one of them in order to take our father’s hand to cross the street.
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These analogies don’t quite do justice to how difficult detachment is for us. We cling to our reality (our possessions, priorities, and privileges) more tenaciously than the crankiest two year old in sole possession of her favorite toys. And these toys are not always neutral. These possessions. . .they wind up holding onto us rather than us onto them. And so Christ, in all of his wisdom expressed in the Christian tradition and in the Church, offers us Lent to help us detach from these things which are less than ourselves. Because that is the secret happiness of Lenten detachment. Everything we let go of is less than ourselves. And if we hold on too tightly, we become less than ourselves, too. Only God can make us more truly ourselves, and more authentically free.
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Fr. Edmund McCullough, O.P.
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Father Edmund McCullough, O.P. serves as the Associate University Chaplain, Brown-RISD Catholic Community. He holds open Office Hours on Thursdays, 1 - 3 pm in Page Robinson 415. |
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More from the Office of the Chaplains & Religious Life |
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Ash Wednesday 2022 - Confessions & Services
10:45 - 11:45 am - Confessions with Fr. Edmund (Page-Robinson, Room 415)
12:05 pm - Ash Wednesday Midday Mass (Manning Chapel)
5:15 - 6:15 pm - Confessions with Fr. Edmund (Page-Robinson, Room 415)
6:30 pm - Ash Wednesday Mass, Eucharistic Adoration & Confession (Manning Chapel)
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Gratitude Group
Come express your gratitude!
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Join us Wednesday evenings from 5 - 6 pm through the end of the semester for Gratitude Group: a non-religious gathering that welcomes all students to explore the positive things in life, and share them. Page-Robinson, 411.
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SAO Lunchtime Series:
Discussion with CAPS
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Join the Student Activities Office, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), and student leaders for Refocusing, Reconnecting, Reengaging: A Mental Health Discussion. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us all in various ways, so stop by the Petteruti Lounge to process and recharge us, together in community. Food will be provided.
Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone
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