March 29, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As we have begun the season of Lent several weeks ago, I cannot help but comment on what Lent can mean for us. The word Lent comes from an old English word that means spring; therefore, it is not unreasonable to describe Lent as the springtime of the soul, a time of new birth in preparation for the great feast of the Resurrection.

St. Augustine once prayed in these words: “Lord, to cut myself off from You means to die. To return to You means to rise again. To remain with You means to live, to truly live.”

This prayer of Augustine truly can be an outline for a Lenten program. If we separate ourselves from the Lord, we truly die. That separation happens when we sin, when we neglect our spiritual life or when, for so many reasons, God does not become the center of our lives. But, to return, and Lent is a season of return, means to rise again, to begin again, to take a new opportunity to deepen our relationship with the Lord. Truly, to remain in the Lord means to really live, and that is the goal of our Lenten journey, to rise and to remain in the Lord.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.