2nd March 2025
- Simon Harkins
- Mar 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 12
Adult Catechism: Please note that the next series of talks continues on Wednesday 5th March 2025 at 7pm in the Parish Hall. These talks are particularly useful to new members of the parish and are pre-ceded with Rosary at 6pm in the church.
1st Communion: First Communion Sacramental Preparation classes continue at 10:15am in the parish hall class rooms on the 1st Floor. The date for 1st Holy Communion is Saturday 31st May 2025. As usu-al the class will be taught by Mrs. Stacy Pustka. Please ensure that you provide Stacy with a Baptismal Certificate dated within 6months as soon as possible.
Ash Wednesday 5th March: The Mass schedule for Ash Wednesday is 8am and 12:15pm. Ashes will also be distributed before the Adult Catechism class at 7pm.
On Wednesday, with the penitential Rite of Ashes we begin Lent, a Season of spiritual renewal in prepa-ration for the annual celebration of Easter. But what does it mean to begin the Lenten journey? The Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent illustrates it for us with the account of the temptations of Jesus in the desert. The Evangelist St Luke recounts that after receiving Baptism from John, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempt-ed by the devil" (Lk 4: 1). There is a clear insistence on the fact that the temptations were not just an incident on the way but rather the consequence of Jesus' decision to carry out the mission entrusted to him by the Father to live to the very end his reality as the beloved Son who trusts totally in him. Christ came into the world to set us free from sin and from the ambiguous fascination of planning our life leaving God out. He did not do so with loud proclamations but rather by fighting the Tempter himself, until the Cross. This example applies to everyone: the world is improved by starting with oneself, changing, with God's grace, everything in one's life that is not going well.
Lent is like a long "retreat" in which to re-enter oneself and listen to God's voice in order to overcome the temptations of the Evil One and to find the truth of our existence. It is a time, we may say, of spiritu-al "training" in order to live alongside Jesus not with pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: namely prayer, listening to the Word of God and penance. In this way we shall suc-ceed in celebrating Easter in truth, ready to renew our baptismal promises. May the Virgin Mary help us so that, guided by the Holy Spirit, we may live joyfully and fruitfully this Season of grace.