Dear Families,

Lent is so important to Christians as a time for us to model Jesus' 40 days in the desert with our own 40 days of preparing our hearts for the joy and promise of Easter. If Jesus can fast for 40 days, Noah can be in the Ark for 40 days, and Moses can go up on Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments for 40 days, it's not too much to ask for us to spend 40 days focusing intently on turning away from sin and being faithful to the Gospel message. Just be thankful that the Lenten season is counted in days instead of years. After all, the practice could have been that we needed to model the Israelites, who wandered around the desert for 40 YEARS! 

At St. Louise School, the students, teachers, and staff spend 40 days engaging in the traditional Lenten practices of fasting & abstinence, good deeds & almsgiving, and prayer & reflection. Our parish also has many liturgies and activities taking place during the Lenten seasons. Please see the schedule of St. Louise Parish and School Lenten events at the end of this bulletin for all the ways you and your children can make the upcoming 40 days a meaningful period of growth in our faith.

The school community begins Lent on Ash Wednesday by foregoing our usual hearty lunches and partaking in a simple lunch consisting of rice and beans and a 1/2 pint of milk. Then, the money which each student and staff member would have normally spent on creating or purchasing a hearty lunch is donated to New Bethlehem Programs. We are suggesting that each student bring $5 cash which we will donate to the New Bethlehem Programs. ($5 is a guesstimate of how much would have been spent on their usual more filling lunch. Your child can always donate more.) New Bethlehem Programs serve families with K-12 children who are experiencing homelessness and will be the recipient of our school community's almsgiving this year. Your kids will hear more from New Bethlehem in the coming weeks. 

After lunch, the school attends a prayer service where everyone receives ashes on their foreheads as symbols of penance and as reminders of Jesus's suffering and our own mortality. Please join us on Ash Wednesday at 1:45 PM; you may join your children outside their classrooms at 1:30.

On the schedule of events below, you'll note the many Stations of the Cross services in the church throughout Lent. Perhaps you can make it a memorable time to attend as a family, teaching your children about and reflecting on the Passion of Christ, and then going out for a special family dinner after. 

School liturgies taking place in Lent besides our Ash Wednesday service include:

• Grade 5-6 Students' Confessions on March 15, 10:30AM,
• Grade 7-8 Students' Confessions on March 22, 10:30AM,
• Standing for Haiti Mass on March 23, 9:00AM,
• Stations of the Cross School Prayer Service on March 29 for PK-3 (11AM) and 5-8 (2PM),
• Holy Thursday Prayer Service on April 6, 9:00AM,
• Stations of the Cross on April 7 - with each homeroom scheduled for a particular time in the morning to walk the outdoor stations; teachers will let you know the specific timeframes so parents can join the walk.

Finally, you will find some Lenten family ideas here. Take advantage of this season's opportunity to draw your family closer to God.

Please see additional information below and in your red envelope about Lent and Ash Wednesday.

Have a Blessed 4-day Presidents’ Day Weekend,

Mr. Fuerte

Principal

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Dear Friends at St. Louise, 

Can you believe it, this week is Ash Wednesday?! Ready or not, get ready for the joyful season of Lent. Joyful, you say? Since when has Lent been joyful? Ever since the Church has set these 40 days as the time to prepare for the center of the liturgical year, those most joyful days of the Holy Easter Triduum. 

Think for a moment, that Christian joy is different than the joy that this world offers. The joy of this world, as great as it is, not going to last. Just one mundane example – when your favorite team wins the World Cup, the World Series, the Superbowl, the Stanley Cup or whatever sporting event it might be, sure, you will feel incredible joy! But what about the next season? Will your team even qualify? How will you feel then? Some real sports fanatics become depressed and so grumpy their family members don’t want to be around them. 

Christian joy is about knowing that with God, everything in life has a purpose and has meaning, including our suffering. We find that purpose and meaning in Jesus, God who took on our humanity so that we could share in his divinity. He didn’t take on our humanity only part way – he suffered, died and rose again so that we could find that our path of suffering, when united to his, will lead us to everlasting life. I can’t overstate how much Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, his ascension into heaven and sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that which we call the Paschal Mystery, changed the course of human history. The age-old curse of sin and death having the final say was destroyed! Yes, we still live with sin and death in this world, but we know the end of the story. We know that Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, will lead us to where there will be no more tears, no more suffering, where death will be no more. 

Catholics fully embrace the joys of this world, having fun, eating, drinking, maybe even occasionally over-indulging, especially in the Christmas and Easter seasons. But we are just as happy to fast, pray, and give alms to the poor with a generous portion of what God has given us. We do all things in moderation in this sense, and with a spirit of detachment. As St. Ignatius would say, “It matters not if I am rich or if I am poor, if I have good health or poor health, if I have a long life or a short life.” Why? Because Christ himself was poor, he suffered greatly physically and he lived a short life. Lent is the time that we “give up” some of our normal pleasures and joys so that we never, ever lose sight of our one lasting joy, Christ himself. 

Have a joyful season of Lent!

Fr. Gary Zender

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

– 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

6th graders made fortune cookies as a reward and cleaned up in conjunction with the ancient China unit.

On Valentine's Day, students enjoyed decorating hearts, handing out valentines, and other fun interactive activities.

Widodo Karli Family

Morris/Herber Family

Antezana Garvizu Family



Coles Family