A very brotherly celebration of mass will take place today as part of the celebration of the season of Lent at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church in Kalispell.

Father Rod Ermatinger, 53, and his brother, Father Cliff Ermatinger of St. Anthony Parish in Milwaukee, Wis., will lead mass together today at 8, 9:30, and 11 a.m. Father Cliff will be giving the homily at all three services.

Lent is a favorite season for the brothers. For Father Cliff it is a time to trim away the fat, to focus on what is essential to faith and work on aligning one’s life more fully with what is fundamental.

“Lent is a time of drawing close to our Lord, especially as he is drawing close to Calvary,” Father Rod said. “We want to be deep in our spiritual life, to be detached from the things of the world. In Lent we work on our internal lives.”

Each year St. Matthew’s brings in a special guest speaker as part of their Lenten mission.

This year, Father Cliff will be giving a series of talks which begin tonight at 7 p.m., titled “Who is Speaking? How to discern spirits and recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Deceiver according to the criteria set down by the Church Fathers.”

“We are surrounded by influences,” Father Cliff said. “There are internal voices as well — our consciences, the Holy Spirit, the evil spirit. A lot of the early church fathers, the first Christians, made a study of the rules to discern which internal voice belongs to whom.

“The rules of discernment are always meant for the individual making choices in his own life, though the principles are valid for everybody.”

There will be four talks in the series, beginning today and wrapping up on Wednesday, March 26. Each will begin at 7 p.m.

The topic of the Sunday through Wednesday talks will be, respectively, “Laying the groundwork for discernment of spirits — introduction to terminology, requirements, and tools,” “Mental prayer in the Roman Catholic Tradition — methods and its role in discernment,” “How the Holy Spirit and the Deceiver work on our intellect,” and “How the Holy Spirit and the Deceiver work on our will.”

In addition to the talks, Father Rod and Father Cliff will be giving the sacrament of confession all four nights beginning at 6 p.m. After the talks there will be time to speak with the priests and purchase books by Father Cliff including “Common Nonsense,” “101 Questions on Prayer Answered by St. Augustine,” “Letters from the Desert,” “Following the Invisible,” and “Spouse and Victim.”

The talks will be recorded and are expected to be available online at www.stmatthewkalispell.org within the next two weeks.