Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are about to begin again the season of Lent, with its more conscious discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. With these spiritual tools, we remind ourselves of our highest vocation and desire to be raised with Christ into Heaven. The ashes we receive on Ash Wednesday are a symbolic sharing in Christ’s saving Passion; only in Him is the possibility of our redemption.

In Lent, we commit again to the path of following our Lord Jesus Christ, even when it costs us something, as it cost Him everything. And we prepare for the Resurrection of our Lord, by offering the little sacrifices of our Lenten discipline, in solidarity with all those who belong to Christ and live in hope of His return in glory.

On Ash Wednesday, we also have an opportunity to participate in the special collection for the Church throughout the world, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Your generous prayers and your gifts to this collection will help build churches and schools, train and educate priests and laypeople, publish Catholic newspapers, sustain orphanages, evangelize and catechize children and adults, and provide scholarships to Catholic students. Please visit www.usccb.org/nationalcollections to see full accounts of your gifts at work. Your solidarity makes a real difference to so many faithful in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

In the same way, solidarity with the poor in our own country, and especially with those suffering a poverty of faith, is greatly needed at home as well. On the first Sunday of Lent, you will again be asked to offer a gesture of solidarity with those fellow American Catholics who, by means of our traditional Black and Indian Missions, and our Catholic Home Missions in this country, are served in Christ’s bounty. I ask you, most importantly, please to pray fervently for them and for our own poor, and to be generous in offering material support to our Catholic missions in this country.

Thank you for your generosity. Please continue to pray for me, and for all priests, especially in this season of Lent.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City