BANGOR – As a fresh snowstorm swirled outside, students from All Saints Catholic School along with parishioners Wednesday began the Lenten season at morning Mass at St. John’s Catholic Church.

Eighth-graders along with the Rev. Richard McLaughlin administered the ashes by making the sign of the cross on worshippers.

“You are from dust and to dust you shall return,” they said while smearing the ashes on foreheads.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season. It is a call to penance, prayer, alms-giving and sacrifice that ends with the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter. That will be March 23.

This year, Ash Wednesday was as early as it could be on the calendar, McLaughlin, pastor of St. John’s, said after Mass. It fell just 30 days after the end of Christmastide on Epiphany, Jan. 5. That is a short time frame in which the liturgy moves from the celebration of Christ’s birth to the sacrifice of his crucifixion, McLaughlin said.

“It’s a real psychological change as well,” the priest said, “from the celebratory nature of Christmas to the repentance of Lent. But we are hungering for spring, new life and relief from the cold.”

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is kicking off a new three-year study program this Lent. It is part of the New Evangelism program that has included the reorganization of traditional parishes into clusters. Evangelism is defined as a preaching of, or zealous effort to spread, the gospel.

Disciples in Mission, according to information on the diocesan Web site, “is a process that parishes and clusters enter into in order to help parishioners become more aware of their relationship with Jesus and connection to one another for the evangelization of their family, parish, workplace and the world.”

The predicted impact of the program includes:

. People will learn to share faith as they grow in faith.

. Ministry involvement will begin to grow.

. Adult education will have more appeal.

. Young adults will become more involved and take ownership of their church.

Disciples in Mission is designed to help individual Catholics see their lives as stories of faith and become comfortable talking about how God has affected their lives, and to give them the tools for inviting others to return to or join the Catholic church.

Created by the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association based in Washington, D.C., the program is designed to help parishioners build community through small Bible study groups in church or at home. It is designed to coincide with the three-year cycle of the lectionary that is a compilation of daily Scripture readings.

“I think the Disciple in Mission program goes hand in hand with the New Evangelism process that we’re doing,” Deacon Fred Harrigan said after Mass Wednesday. “In the Catholic church, evangelism by definition is the bringing of each one of us to Jesus Christ.

“Each time we meet,” he continued, “we look at the next Sunday’s Scripture reading. During Lent, they are very rich and we’ll be able to relate what is going on in the Scripture to what is going on in our lives.”

Holding group Bible study and inviting friends, neighbors and co-workers to church might feel foreign to Catholics who came of age before the reforms implemented in the 1960s, Harrigan said. For those born after Vatican II, the evangelism program will be familiar but offers Catholics new tools for practicing their faith, the deacon said.

Harrigan is the permanent deacon serving St. John’s and St. Mary’s in Bangor and St. Joseph’s in Brewer.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

990-8207

Three objectives of Disciples in Mission

Year 1: Live our faith fully.

To bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others.

Year 2: Invite others to join us.

To invite all people in the U.S., whatever their social or cultural background, to the message of salvation in Jesus Christ so they may come to join us in the fullness of our Catholic faith.

Year 3: Transform the world in Christ.

By fostering Gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, protecting the family and the common good of our society.

Source: www.disciplesinmission.org.