Ash Wednesday -'Time's Up! Let's Go, Fat Boy!'

In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis - In all that you do, remember this Bud's for you!

'No, I'm sorry . . . In all of your works be aware of your last end and you will never sin.'

Who the hell this guy from the Book of Ecclesiasticus was talking to is beyond me.

Me and every human child above the age of six is aware of Death* - others and our own - and we sin up a storm. Hence, Lent.

Lent brings us to a place each year when we can actually make an effort to abstain from the inclinations and vanities that creep into our lives each day.

Lent is a good thing - it is Faith in Action. Faith in Action is what distinguishes Catholics from our Calvinist and Lutheran co-religionists.

We as Catholics got embarrassed by our Militant Catholicism ( Faith in Action) and apologized or hid it away for the last fifty years. Remember Bishop Shiel? Saul Alinsky stole most of his programs and ideas.

This Lent let's get back in the game.

We have over 7,000 Catholic white men committed to Leo High School and they support poor black - mostly non-Catholic young men - in getting a quality Catholic Education.

We have Catholics leading the Police Athletic League of the Chicago Crime Commission taking steps to get kids off the streets and into a gym and a boxing program.

Catholics are the most generous demographic in Chicago.

Practice Faith in Action - Good Works - and don't worry about the Final Visitor.


* By the time the two of you read this, I will be attending the funeral in Kankakee of a former student, a splendid young man, devoted husband, and father of two - a Notre Dame grad and banker. He is doing just fine right now, as his life was Faith in Action.