Monday of the Third Week of Lent
March 13th, 2023
Call to Action: 64
64. We call upon all levels of government that provide public funds to denominational schools to require such schools to provide an education on comparative religious studies, which must include a segment on Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and practices developed in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders.
Suggestions for Almsgiving
The 2023 Lenten Calendar is a project of CTA's Indigenous Solidarity Collective, a working group that addresses the Catholic Church's historical and current role in colonialization. To support more projects from working groups like this one, please consider making a contribution!
Monday, Mar. 13, 2023
Education for Reconciliation
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Indigenous Solidarity Collective and Anti-Racism Team (ART). This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to lead members into action and solidarity with Indigenous communities. For holy days and Sundays during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member on why we're committed to undoing racism and Indigenous oppression in our own communities and biases and what it means to do this work as Catholics. Following each meditation or reflection, we will feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Today's call to action requests the Canadian government to include First Nations (Indigenous) spirituality and rituals in world religion courses. Why would this need be so important that it necessitates a call to action of its own?
Think about how you learned about your religion and cultivated your spirituality. Did you have the freedom to practice your religious rituals in your daily life? Was your spirituality respected, and maybe even embraced by your community?
It may also be helpful to reflect on how you learned about religions that aren't your own. Did you learn about these belief systems in the classroom? How were they taught?
As an instructor of religious studies, I advise my students to suspend their worldview so they may step into the worldview of another. The goal is to understand how one group may experience the world and why they would have this experience.
This Lent, learn how to become a spiritual empath and practice this form of suspension. How can you suspend your own worldview not to create distance between you and another person, but to bridge the gap?
—Meditation by Indigenous Solidarity Collective member Lauren Barbato
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the
following organizations: