Photo By Bernard Little | Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, Timothy Broglio gives the homily during the...... read more read more
Subscribe
Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, Timothy Broglio provided the homily during the Ash Wednesday Catholic Mass at Walter Reed on Feb. 14.
In a later service the same day, Army Chaplain (Maj.) Vincent Bain gave the Ash Wednesday Protestant Services at the medical center.
“It is my desire to thank all of you who care for the sick and wounded, and all you do to support [that] work of this great medical center,” said Broglio. He has served as the Archbishop for Military Services, USA, since 2008, and as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops since 2022.
As head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, Broglio oversees services to Catholics serving on military installations around the globe, as well as Catholic staff and patients at Veterans Health Administration facilities, and Catholics at other federal services located overseas.
Broglio has provided the homily during Ash Wednesday Catholic Mass at Walter Reed for more than a decade. He said Walter Reed and the medical field are characterized by “concern, dedication, shared participation and responsibility towards the men and women entrusted to [them] for material and spiritual assistance in their hour of need.”
The archbishop explained Ash Wednesday begins Lent, “a time of spiritual retreat for the church. We unite ourselves to Christ, who before he began his public ministry, spent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying. He gave us an example of how we are to live this time [of Lent]. He calls us to use discretion as we give to the poor so that we respond to the person of Christ who identifies himself with the one in need and not as something showy.”
“He calls us to penance and fasting, and each person knows how to follow those counsels in his or her daily life,” Broglio said.
“Lent is a time of prayer, a time to praise, thank, express sorrow for sin, and to ask the Lord for favors for needs,” the archbishop added. “Indeed, we must include in our prayers, prayers for peace in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, in Africa, and everywhere else where people have not learned to live as brothers and sisters. Even in our own land, we see instability, violence, and the inability to work together to care for others. Perhaps we should explore what happens here at Walter Reed, where people work together to care for those in need. That would be a good way to serve as an ambassador of Christ.”
“Prayer, almsgiving, and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single movement of openness and self-emptying in which we cast out idols that weigh us down. Then the atrophy and isolated heart will revive,” Broglio said.
He shared that the ashes of Lent are indication that “this life is not forever, but also, like the ashes that were once palm, we change. We can draw nearer to the Lord. We are never constrained to be slaves to our sins and weaknesses. Conversion leads to the fullness of life, and the victory that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. We recognize that the Lord overcame sin and death and calls us to walk with him in the newness of eternal life.”
Bain, the bioethics chaplain at Walter Reed, shared similar sentiments during the litany at the afternoon’s Protestant Services. “On this day, the Church begins a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. From ancient times, the season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on [the Lord’s] word and draws from it life and hope.”
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2024 15:02 |
| Story ID: | 463991 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Walter Reed hosts Military Services USA Archbishop for Ash Wednesday Mass, by Bernard Little, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
