Letter from Augustine Institute President

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” (Psalm 46:1-3)

Lenten greetings in Christ,

In times of great uncertainty and anxiety, Scripture is a refuge and a strength for all who pray. The Covid-19 virus has swept through the world and has brought much of our normal life to a standstill. It seems the whole world is in quarantine.

What does our global quarantine mean?
The word quarantine comes from the Italian, quarantina, which simply means “40 days”. It is also the same word for Lent in Italian. The word finds its first usage in Venice in the 14th Century for ships that came in from countries that were suffering with plague. The ships would be quarantined for 40 days to ensure they did not spread illness.

A more radical Lent
It is ironic that during our season of Lent we find ourselves in quarantine from this virus – no sports, social gatherings, concerts, or conferences, just to name a few of the cancellations. But in fact, this somber silencing of social gathering was actually the norm during the classical Catholic Lent until just 200 years ago. Now we have an opportunity, albeit not of our choosing, to live a more radical Lent. Not only us Catholics, but it seems that the whole world has been invited to live a more austere Lent. What is the meaning of this? Is there a prophetic sign that we should discern? Does Heaven want the world to practice a more perfect Lenten observance, so to speak? If so, the purpose behind such a more serious Lenten observance would be found in the meaning of Lent itself.

A season of Grace
Lent is a season of penance. Now, that sounds terribly negative to our modern thinking, but it does not mean that God’s judgment is rising up out of spite or wrath. Rather, it means that this is a season of grace, where we are invited to put first things first, and return to God. In Hebrew the word for repentance is shuv, and it means a turning back, a return to God. Lent is to be a turning point where we start to prioritize the spiritual over the
worldly.

A change of thinking
We can get overly focused on pursuing the comforts and entertainment of the world by seeking security in investments, retirement funds, government and just about anything other than God. But in Matthew 6 in His sermon on the mount, Jesus warns that our treasure is not threatened with loss. The Greek word for conversion is metanoia, which means a change of thinking. Here we see that conversion is not just accepting a proposition—that God died for my sins—as true as that is, but metanoi restructures are whole mindset. All our worldly values are shaken up and turned upside down by true conversion.

Making space for God
Lent is about putting aside worldly pursuits so as to make space for God. It is like spring gardening, in which clearing out a good patch of ground – pulling up weeds, grace, and rocks while upturning the soil – is necessary to make space for new seed to be planted. Grace, like seed, needs space to grow in our hearts. We usually resist God’s grace and will in our lives, because we simply don’t allow space in our busy lives. Making room for Him is hard – at times even painful – but Lent creates the opportunity for us as a community of believers to do just that. Today’s quarantine is brushing aside social gathering, sports, and entertainment in a way that would be too painful for many of us to do on our own. So, we have a rare window to clear the soil of our hearts.

Which is why the Augustine Institute has made improvements to FORMED.org. Since so many are at home, we have created sections to serve Catholic families with new key initiatives:

Faith at Home – Resources to help you grown in your Catholic Faith while on quarantine
Prayer at Home – Mass, Devotionals, Holy Rosary, and Stations of the Cross to help you grow closer to God in your prayer life.
School at Home – Curriculum and animated videos to help children while home from school.

FORMED: Bringing the Church to thousands
We are seeing our daily engagement more than double on FORMED over the past few weeks as the Covid-19 crisis has arisen. Our first FORMED Live show that we did had over 200,000 people sign in, to hear about a faith-based view of the pandemic from Scripture and the early Church response to plagues. We are now hosting daily shows on FORMED to help the lay faithful through this time of trial. Most Catholics cannot go to Church, but thanks to FORMED we can bring the Church into hundreds of thousands of homes.

“Thank you for creating a new video today to help address the difficult journey we are all on with the coronavirus. . . this was a wonderful addition which truly struck a chord and brought St. Joseph to life. Thank you!!”
- Janet O.

Janet is just one of thousands who watched our live Bible study on FORMED on the Feast of St. Joseph. What a blessing that we can serve Catholics like Janet in this way!

The Gospel is not on lockdown
Although we have economic challenges, we do not suffer from a mission recession at the Augustine Institute. In the past week alone, 25 Dioceses have reached out to us to start FORMED because have no way to reach their people who now can’t go to Mass. Hundreds of parishes are reaching out as well, and our staff is working to help them reach their people. For example, RCIA and First Communion religious education classes cannot continue at church, but FORMED makes it possible for parishes to run such programs virtually and reach their parishioners at home. The Gospel need not be on lockdown.

“I am so grateful to our pastor and our church for subscribing to Formed so that we, as parishioners, may experience the peace that comes from these spiritual reflections every day.”
- Margaret S.

We are working harder than ever to continue to serve people like Margaret with edifying resources to help her grown in her Faith while she is quarantined at home and unable to go to Mass. But this is not possible without your support! We need your help so that we can continue to grow our service to you and others around the world.

Build up treasure in heaven
Any small gift can make a big difference in our ability to continue to reach. We have 927,000+ registered users of FORMED – if just 10% of our users gave us a small monthly gift we could sustain FORMED through this period of quarantine and grow its reach. Can you help us?

I know in uncertain times it is harder to give, but Jesus addresses this in the readings that our Church always cites at the beginning of Lent: the second half of Mathew, chapter 6. This is his famous Sermon on the Mount, in which he says to not be anxious about your life, right after he summons us to build up treasure in heaven by our almsgiving and generosity.

Seek first the kingdom of God
At a time when earthly investments are not making a great return, can you invest in our mission – one that serves the Church at a time of great need? “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.” (Matt 6:33-34).

Jesus reminds us of the reason we should not surrender to anxiety, because “your heavenly Father” loves you and knows what you need. Giving in a time of uncertainty requires us to take on the Lenten exercise of almsgiving by exercising sacrificial giving. We are grateful for your support at whatever level you can give. Please visit FORMED and fortify your faith this Lent—because we need God more than ever.

Shalom,

Tim Gray

“God would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.” –St. Augustine

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MISSION WITH A DONATION AND HELP US
THIS LENT BECAUSE WE ALL NEED GOD MORE THAN EVER.