1st Sunday of Lent

The Prodigal Son
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During Lent this year we will hear the Gospel of the Prodigal Son which Pope Benedict 16th said “constitutes one of the peaks of spirituality and literature of all time”.   Part of the famous Rembrandt painting of this parable will accompany our journey in the Church, with the Father embracing his repentant child - as Pope Benedict put it “our Father who out of love created us to be free and endowed us with a conscience, who suffers when we get lost and rejoices when we return”.
 
The Holy Father went on to write “For this reason, our relationship with the Father is built up through events, just as it happens for every child with his parents: at first he depends on them, then he asserts his autonomy; and, in the end if he develops well he reaches a mature relationship based on gratitude and authentic love.
In these stages we can also identify moments along man's journey in his relationship with God. There can be a phase that resembles childhood: religion prompted by need, by dependence. As man grows up and becomes emancipated, he wants to liberate himself from this submission and become free and adult, able to organize himself and make his own decisions, even thinking he can do without God. Precisely this stage is delicate and can lead to atheism, yet even this frequently conceals the need to discover God's true Face.
Fortunately for us, God never fails in his faithfulness and even if we distance ourselves and get lost he continues to follow us with his love, forgiving our errors and speaking to our conscience from within in order to call us back to him”
 
During these Lenten days may we hear the voice of the Father, who is ever merciful and compassionate, speaking to our hearts that we may grow closer to him each day.