Lent | 2025
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We're loved by God
No matter what we do, we are loved beyond measure by God. God demonstrated this by allowing His only Son, Jesus, to die for us. The “exclamation point” on this statement of love is that Jesus died for us while we were still alienated from God.
This Lenten season, our joy is in this: We proclaim this good news: we do not have to earn God’s love because He bestows it upon us freely. Love, especially love at this magnitude, demands a response – mainly to live as people who know that they are loved.
As Christians, this fact gives us a precious gift: hope. The risen Lord’s promise to remain with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit enables us to hope even against all hope. With this gift, we can see the goodness quietly present even when all else seems lost.
In Lent Church invites us to imitate His ultimate sacrifice on the cross through a series of small sacrifices, including increased prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These smaller sacrifices, motivated from a desire to show gratitude to God and not to earn God’s love draws us closer to being the men and women God created us to be.
As we focus on the hope that comes to us from knowing that our God willingly died for us on the Cross, I encourage you to plan your Lent around one or more of the parish activities listed here, designed to help us grow in our faith this Lenten Season.
Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius, Pastor
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Special Lenten Projects
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At Epiphany of Our Lord
Acknowledging that God invited us, out of love, to be co-workers with Him, we invite you to decorate a small wood cross this Lenten Season. As you decorate this cross, we invite you to prayerfully connect it with an intention. For example, it might be peace or healing for someone, or the return of a family member back to the faith.
Please do not write the intention on cross so that the intention can remain between you and God. We will take all decorative crosses and display them in the front of the Church throughout the Easter Season.
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At St. James the Greater
This Lent, we will be using the La Salette Cross to inspire our Lenten journey. A La Salette Cross is a cross that has a hammer and a pincer (pliers) attached to the vertical bar. The hammer symbolizes our sins, which nail Christ to the Cross, and the pincers, the acts of mercy, that lighten His burden.
On the side altar in front of the Marian tapestry at St. James, we will have two boxes, and a stack of paper and pens. The first box has the image of a hammer, and we invite you to anonymously list sins that you would like God to help you leave behind. The second box has a pincer on it. In this box, leave a note describing the works of mercy that you will do this Lent. We will burn papers from both boxes in our Easter vigil fire.
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At Both ParishesDid you know that 25% percent of the money raised through the Rice Bowl in the Archdiocese of St. Louis goes to local groups? In 2024, the funds were divided among nine parishes, three in each vicariate, including a gift to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at Epiphany.
Join our faith community—and more than 12,000 Catholic communities across the United States—in a transformative Lenten journey with CRS Rice Bowl. With recent and dramatic changes to CRS funding our support this Lent is more important than ever. In addition to helping our brothers and sisters around the world, 25% of Rice Bowl funds come back to St. Louis to support the work of Archdiocesan ministries serving the poor and marginalized. You can pick up your family’s CRS Rice Bowl from the Ambassador station after Mass.
Visit crsricebowl.org to learn more.
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Lenten Calendar
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Friday, March 21, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Join us for Epiphany's annual Fish Fry!Read More -
Wednesday, March 26, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Join us for Confession and Family Adoration Wednesday evening from 6:30 - 7:30 PM in church.Read More -
Friday, March 28, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Join us for Epiphany's annual Fish Fry!Read More
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Wednesday, April 2, 6:30 PM - 7:45 PM
Take this special opportunity for families to come together about halfway through Lent for prayer and to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Activities for children who have not yet received first Reconciliation will be available.Read More -
Friday, April 4, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Join us for Epiphany's annual Fish Fry!Read More
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Sunday, April 6, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Join musician Dennis Keller for an afternoon of praise and worship music celebrating the Lenten Season.Read More -
Friday, April 11, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Join us for Epiphany's annual Fish Fry!Read More
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Saturday, April 12, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Join us for a day of open prayer, adoration and reflection in church at St. James the Greater. Encounter "Christ in the Wilderness" - in the solitude of our hears.Read More -
Friday, April 18, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Pray the stations of the cross with our community on Good Friday.Read More -
Wednesday, April 23, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Join us for Confession and Family Adoration Wednesday evening from 6:30 - 7:30 PM in church.Read More
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Wednesday, April 30, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
If you enjoyed our Christmas Party, you're going to LOVE Easter Jam! Come together with other families to celebrate the miracle of Easter and God's ever renewing love for us and for His church!Read More -
Wednesday, May 28, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Join us for Confession and Family Adoration Wednesday evening from 6:30 - 7:30 PM in church.Read More
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What is Lent?Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter.
It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter. During Lent, we seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; we serve by giving alms; and we practice self-control through fasting.
