Lent is a special time in the Church’s year that prepares the faithful and catechumens for Easter. The season opens formally on the first Sunday and continues for 40 days to Holy Thursday.

The liturgy in this season disposes us in a variety of ways to celebrate the Paschal mystery which is at the centre of the Liturgical Year and of the Christian Life.  It is preceded by the Penitential Rites of Ash Wednesday which calls the faithful to ‘Repent, and believe in the  Gospel.’ The mark of the Cross on the forehead on the penitent is an outward sign of a desire to change and to model one’s life on Christ.

Lent is a special time of Prayer, Fasting and Alms-giving. I invite you to join with me each day throughout the season in spending some time before the Blessed Sacrament and to reflect with me on the meaning and importance of the Lord’s final journey to Calvary.

For your alms-giving, I ask you, please, to support the work of SCIAF, the official agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland that reaches out on our behalf to the poorest of the poor in many parts of the world. More than ever, your prayers and financial support is  needed.

Lent encourages us to foster a personal relationship with God. Day by day, we are encouraged to meditate on the exemplary and virtuous model of Jesus, who made his way through life with steadfastness and without faltering. Taken seriously, it is unquestionably a challenging time of the year for Christians.

We are invited to undergo a profound change, to cleanse our heart and to live in harmony with God’s mercy. If we look firmly into the very depths of our being, we will find that there is something or indeed many things that we need to improve, to stamp out or to change. The reward? Forgiveness, in response
to repentance.

Now, is the favourable time to come back to the Lord, in humility, with open minds and loving hearts—
Do not be afraid!

 
Happy Lent!

Canon Eddie