Lenten activities are abundant in Tier

With Holy Week just around the corner, Catholics in the Southern Tier are immersing themselves in spiritual, service and social initiatives denoting the Lenten season.

Among the activities are the following:

• A Forty Days for Life vigil is running through April 9 in Ithaca. All are invited to join in peaceful prayer to end abortion between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily near Planned Parenthood, 620 W. Seneca St.

• Living Stations of the Cross are being presented each Friday at regional locations by youths from Blessed Trinity/St. Patrick parishes in Tioga County. The final presentation is on Good Friday, April 14, at St. Margaret Mary in Apalachin at 7:30 p.m.

• Immaculate Conception, Ithaca, is hosting a cantata April 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. Also during Lent, the parish held an adult faith-formation series with Patrick Meyer, pastoral associate; small Christian communities; and fundraising for Catholic Charities.

• Students of Immaculate Conception School, Ithaca, led a Living Stations of the Cross for the school and parish.

• St. Mary of the Lake, Watkins Glen, is the site of Friday-evening Holy Hours beginning at 7 p.m. Also at St. Mary of the Lake, Father Mike Carmola, from Christ the King Retreat House in the Syracuse Diocese, offered presentations for Lenten reflection April 3-5.

• Hornell’s Knights of Columbus is conducting “40 Cans for Lent” food drives in Our Lady of the Valley Parish, Hornell/Rexville, through Good Friday.

• The cluster of St. Matthew, Livonia, and St. Mary, Honeoye, is hosting soup suppers with prayer on Fridays.

• St. Mary, Bath, is hosting Stations of the Cross, Mass, meal and program on Wednesday evenings.

• Faith-formation students from Holy Cross, Dryden, and St. Anthony, Groton, are participating in Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl initiative.

• St. Mary Our Mother, Horseheads, is raising funds for Elmira Community Kitchen through loose-change collections.

• Christ the Redeemer, Elmira, is collecting personal-care products for Catholic Charities’ Samaritan Center and homeless shelter.

• Holy Family Catholic Community in Steuben and Livingston counties is holding three soup suppers during Lent.

• A Lenten book study series is taking place at All Saints Parish in Lansing.

• Middle-school students from All Saints Academy in Corning put on a special Stations of the Cross March 3. In addition, the school’s students have sought to recite 1,000 rosaries during Lent for blessings on All Saints Parish. Elsewhere in the parish, a five-part series, “A Biblical Walk Through the Mass,” was held March 20-23 at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Painted Post.

• The Catholic communities at Cornell University and Ithaca College held six-week winter/Lenten retreats involving daily prayer based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola.

• A regional Lenten series for Elmira’s parishes took place March 6-8 at Ss. Peter and Paul, featuring Joseph Kelly of Nazareth College. Also in Elmira, guest homilists Deacon Don Weigel and Deacon Mark Robbins spoke at parishes about Operation Rice Bowl.

• St. Luke the Evangelist, Livingston County, hosted a Lenten retreat March 17-18 with former television actor Frank Runyeon giving a one-man performance. In addition, St. Luke worship sites are hosting Lenten soup suppers.

• A Lenten retreat held March 21-23 in the cluster of St. Rose in Lima, St. Agnes in Avon and St. Paul of the Cross in Honeoye Falls featured teaching Masses led by Father Michael Fowler, parochial administrator.

• St. Gabriel, Hammondsport, took part in an ecumenical noontime worship and lunch program with area churches on Wednesdays, serving as host March 8 and 29.
• St. James, Waverly, held a fish dinner on March 31. Another Blessed Trinity/St. Patrick church, St. John the Evangelist in Newark Valley, hosted a fish dinner March 24.

• A Lenten “Sunday Night Joy” program took place March 12 at St. Patrick in Owego, with attendees taking part in supper and a faith presentation.

• Faith-formation students from St. Stanislaus, Bradford, put on a free supper in the church hall Feb. 28 in anticipation of Lent.

• St. Catherine of Siena, Ithaca, featured “Teach Us to Pray Day” March 24 during which participants experienced different forms of prayer.