{"id":93693,"date":"2024-02-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/archbishop-vigneron-rallies-catholics-to-engage-in-a-spiritual-campaign-this-lent\/"},"modified":"2024-02-19T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T13:00:00","slug":"archbishop-vigneron-rallies-catholics-to-engage-in-a-spiritual-campaign-this-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/archbishop-vigneron-rallies-catholics-to-engage-in-a-spiritual-campaign-this-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Vigneron rallies Catholics to engage in a spiritual \u2018campaign\u2019 this Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lent is a very personal journey, the archbishop said, but is a journey one makes with the catechumens who will be entering the Church at Easter and the entire faithful, who will be renewing their baptismal vows and their identity as Jesus\u2019 disciples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lenten season is compromised of three main pillars: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, all of which help us strive to be better followers of Christ, Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said. Credit: Valaurian Waller\/Detroit Catholic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is a communal campaign centered on three core tenets prescribed in the Scriptures: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. But the archbishop challenged the congregation to think \u201coutside the box\u201d of what Lent can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a way for the Church to think about Lent as a military campaign, so that we can have some new energy,\u201d Vigneron said. \u201cI\u2019m in my 76th year, so from the age of reason, about 70 of these I\u2019ve done. But this might be a fresh perspective for all of us to think about how Lent is a kind of military campaign that we are enlisting in today by taking up the ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

By choosing to come to church on Ash Wednesday and accepting the ashes placed upon one\u2019s forehead, people are deciding to \u201cre-up\u201d in the campaign to be ambassadors for Christ, to live for something beyond one\u2019s pleasure and self-satisfaction, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holy Spirit brought you here today, inspired you to leave your pew and come forward and let the ashes be imposed on you,\u201d Vigneron said. \u201cYou want to be a soldier, a warrior in the great war led by our captain, Jesus Christ. The war [is] against sin. The war [is] to establish the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of holiness, the kingdom of charity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n