August 2, 2026, 12:00 PM
Last weekend, during his good-bye talk at Masses, our seminarian Jeremy Barket remarked on how quickly summer seems to pass.
Like it or not, our days grow shorter, we have evenings that feel a little like September, we’re counting off the days or weeks until Little League and the St Boniface Carnival and the beginning of school. We’ll soon be in those weeks when we live between the seasons, saying our farewell to summer and our welcome to fall.
These next months and weeks bring an opportunity to men in our parish communities. The people who invited men to participate in Exodus 90 last winter return with an invitation to St Michael’s Lent.
What, you might ask, is St Michael’s Lent? It’s not something the Exodus 90 program created. It existed in history, without the liturgical stamp or official fasting requirements that Lent itself enjoys. Most famously, St Francis kept it with great devotion, spending those 40 days in retreat in the mountains. At the end of that Lent-like period, he received the vision of the cross and the stigmata on his hands, feet and side. In a strange and wonderful coincidence, St Michael’s Lent gets us not just to St Michael’s feast day (September 29), but also prepares us for St Francis’ feast, his “transitus” on October 4—an important day in this holy year commemorating the 800th anniversary of his passage through death to eternal life.
That’s the history. But, for us, St Michael’s Lent invites us to fast and pray, to reflect on scripture and walk these weeks with fellow believers. We have had an active Exodus 90/St Michael’s Lent group in our area. We meet with some regularity in our own rectory early on Saturday mornings. We listen to the same app, drawing us to reflect on scripture. We share the experience of our journey with one another. We even celebrate when we come to the season’s end—last spring after Exodus 90 with Fr Dias preparing an authentic Indian meal!
Please note the information in the bulletin and on the cards and posters in church. If you know someone who might benefit from this process, please pass the word on! And, since it is a men’s program, I’d add that for women (and other folks who just might not want the all-male piece of the program), St Michael’s Lent prayers and devotional materials are out there from other providers. Use your search engine! And let’s all pray that these late summer and early fall days be a graced time for all God’s people.
Fr. McCreary
Fr. McCreary
