Lent 2020

Hello everyone! We have decided to bring the blog back after a few years hiatus. We are going to keep it up to date with ongoing events and news from The Reason for Our Hope Foundation. We hope that you share it with your family and friends!

As always Lent is Fr. Larry’s busiest time for speaking. He is the Master of Ceremonies for the Seventh Annual 22:32 Men’s Conference held tomorrow at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Erie, Pennsylvania. The event is sponsored by The Reason For Our Hope Foundation. We are looking forward to spending the day with over 500 men. Our speakers are nationally known and inspirational; they are Chris Padgett, Fr. Michael Denk, and Ralph Martin. We will also have mass with our Bishop, Lawrence Persico. We look forward to this event every year.

On Monday March 2, Fr. Larry is traveling to Riverton, New Jersey to do a four-day Parish Mission at Sacred Heart Parish. The event starts at 7:00 PM every night and ends at 9:00 PM. After Riverton, he travels to the Tenth Annual Catholic Men’s Fellowship of the Carolinas in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event is on Saturday March 7. Father will continue down South for a Parish Mission in Pinecrest, Florida at St. Louis Catholic Church, starting on Monday, March 9 from 7:00-9:00 PM eve.

He will round out the month of March at his home Parish, St. Joseph Church/Bread of Life Community (Erie, Pennsylvania) for the St. Joseph Feast Day Triduum. It is a big event at his parish. He will then be the Master of Ceremonies at the Sixth Annual 1:38 Women’s Conference at Our Lady of Peace Parish on March 28, in Erie, Pennsylvania. We have three wonderful speakers: Caralyn Collar, Sr. Regina Marie Gorman, OCD, and Alyssa Bormes. The Foundation sponsors this event and we are looking forward to spending the day with over 700 women and our Bishop. If you are in the area and are interested in learning more, please visit: www.138women.com. We would love to see you there.

At The Reason For Our Hope Foundation we are celebrating two big milestones. One is Fr. Larry’s Podbean Podcast: https://frlarryrichards.podbean.com/ has over a MILLION downloads. We started using the platform On June 24, 2018 with the Sunday Mass homily; in September of 2019 we started uploading the 7:00 am Daily Mass homily. The homilies have been downloaded in over 50 countries and are also on our website: https://thereasonforourhope.org/category/2020/ .

We also launching our very own app this month, through MyParishApp. To get access to premium Foundation and other Catholic content text “HOPE” to 88202 to download the app from your store. If your parish is already using MyParishApp search for Fr. Larry or Hope after opening. You can also go to http://diocesan.com/mobile/myparish or search for “MyParish” in your app store. It can be found in both Apple App Store and Google Play.

I want to end this post with some words from Fr. Larry regarding Lent:

“What are you doing for Lent? Every year you hear the same thing from me – do more than give up pop or candy! For Lent to be really effective, you need to both deny yourself and make yourself do something extra! When it comes to denying oneself, you can give up things like candy, dessert, TV, or something else that you really love, but make it something that is going to help you grow in holiness. This means that if you struggle with overeating, then food is a good thing to give up. You can decide to fast on bread and water on Fridays of Lent or on Wednesdays and Fridays, as the old tradition called for. If your struggle is with Lust, then the TV or the computer is a great thing to give up, because it will help you to avoid things that could tempt you. If you are prone to gossip, then why not decide to give up unnecessary talking for Lent? Ask Jesus what HE wants you to give up this Lent. Spend some quality time with Him so you do what HE wants and not what you want!”

As always, we ask you for your prayers and know that you are in all of ours.

~Caitlin Rydberg