April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
PARISH LIFE
Hearts and coins help Catholics 'keep Lent'
Hearts and coins help Catholics 'keep Lent'
JOHNSTOWN
Cindy Kollar, the faith formation director for Holy Trinity, had a hand in organizing the parish's first-ever "Change of Heart" Lenten tree.
At the beginning of Lent, parishioners were given six purple paper hearts to take home, one for each week of Lent. Every week, they were encouraged to write something on a heart that they wanted to do for the Lenten season in order to become closer to God, from being more compassionate to becoming a better listener.
If they kept that promise, they were asked to bring back that heart and hang it on a tree branch that had been placed in the church.
Having a visual representation of these "changes of heart" is key to the project's success, said Ms. Kollar.
"It's very important to involve entire families," she said, noting that children often need to see something in order to understand it.
Ms. Kollar has been participating in the Change of Heart tree, as well. "It holds me accountable," she said. "This promise isn't just from my heart, but it's between me and Jesus. It's making me aware that I have to stop and make a commitment for a week."
She's working on having less distractions when she is praying and on attending weekly devotions. Other parishioners have written promises on the cut-out hearts to be more patient or to encourage a spouse to attend Mass with them during Lent.
WATERVLIET
Awareness is the basis for a Lenten project at Immaculate Heart of Mary. The faith formation classes bought nearly 500 Lenten coins for parishioners to carry in their pockets during the 40 days of Lent.
The coins are about the size of a quarter, with a picture of a cross on them and a quote from Matthew 22:37 on one side ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind ") and Matthew 22:39 ("Love your neighbor as you love yourself ") on the other.
"It's a physical reminder" of keeping the faith, said Sharon Kowalski, faith formation coordinator.
The parish has been giving out small pocket tokens every Lent for five years. For the first two years, the faith formation program gave out nails to symbolize Christ's crucifixion. Now, the students buy coins from a religious-goods retailer.
Each year, along with the coin or small token, the faith formation class does a small write-up to explain the significance of the items.
"You get ashes on Ash Wednesday and then you kind of forget about Lent except 'no meat on Friday'," Ms. Kowalski remarked; the coins, she said, are intended to give parishioners a bit of guidance during their busy days.
Parishioners seem to look forward to the coins, she said, even keeping them on key rings year-'round. The coins are so popular, the supply is usually depleted by the second Sunday of Lent.
As for the Change of Heart tree, Ms. Kollar said Holy Trinity's first effort seems to be going well so far, after a chuckle over a bit of confusion the first week: "People were telling me that from Ash Wednesday to Sunday didn't count as a full week."
A couple of weeks into Lent, there were already more than four dozen hearts hanging on the tree.[[In-content Ad]]
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