Lent, 2021

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The season of Lent is marked by our recommitment to the path of discipleship, and our more conscious discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As the COVID pandemic continues to affect everyone in these days, we need to hone our spiritual strength and resources all the more. With these spiritual tools, we can begin again to pursue 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, and a clear reminder of the inevitable passing of all worldly things; only in Him can we find the possibility of our eternal happiness and redemption.

On the First Sunday of Lent, we also have an opportunity to participate in the special collection to benefit the Church in the neediest areas of the world, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe; and to support the works of charity carried out collectively by the bishops of our country through Catholic Relief Services. 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. Your prayerful solidarity makes a real difference to so many faithful attempting to build up the Church, either again or for the first time, in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

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 Rev. R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City