The Transfiguration
The Transfiguration is one of the few Gospel narratives that is repeated more than once throughout the liturgical year. It has its own feast day in August. Why then do we hear it again during Lent?
One reason is that it points towards the whole aim of the penitential season of Lent: it gives us a glimpse of the Resurrection. Jesus permits the select group of disciples to see his future glory.
We are given this text about the Transfiguration to sustain us as we do penance and give us sight of the Easter victory that we are preparing to celebrate. The glory shows us that Jesus is God. The appearance of Moses and Elijah tells us that Christ himself is the fulfilment of the whole of Salvation History.
It is these facts that we should not lose sight of. Whilst the solemnity of the season of Lent is important; it loses all its potency of we forget that it leads us to the glory and joy of Easter.
Father Alex McAllister
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To Keep a True Lent
Is this a fast, to keep
The larder lean?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?
No; ’tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.
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Robert Herrick 1648

​What is Lent?
A few years ago, it used to be fashionable in certain circles to greet people by saying, ‘Have a happy Lent!’ This was not something I ever liked very much, because I think that it made the penitential season of Lent sound just like Easter, which really is the proper liturgical season for rejoicing.
But I suppose that greeting found its origin in the Preface for the First Sunday of Lent which used to say, ‘each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and hearts renewed.’ However, the new translation of the mass puts it a bit more accurately: ‘each year your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure.’
This makes things much clearer; it stresses that Lent is principally a time of purification. So, it is not the season that is joyful but the fact that it leads us to purify our lives. The joy that is referred to is more like serenity than pleasure. It is the serenity that comes from having kept a good Lent, having borne the hardships of penance and fasting and having put quite a bit of extra effort into our prayer lives.
We need to be attentive to the fact that the liturgy has various moods with specific emphases for each liturgical season. The same applies to the mass which is why in Lent we don’t use exactly the same music for the Kyrie, the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei as we do during the rest of the year. We use different tunes to express the very different emotions of sorrow, praise and profound devotion appropriate for the season.
Lent may be a penitential time, but that does not make it a miserable season. There is joy in it but it is a sober joy, a restrained serenity that comes from being faithful to the traditional penances which are undertaken to unite ourselves with the sufferings of Jesus. Yes, it is a sorrowful season but our sadness is moderated by the knowledge that Christ has won the victory and paid the price of our redemption.
Father Alex McAllister

Observing Lent
The season of Lent is upon us next week. The relatively early Easter means that the gap between Christmas and Ash Wednesday is rather short. Many of us may have not even thought about how we will observe the coming penitential season.
There is a little clue for us in today's Gospel. We hear how Jesus, after an intensive time of healing the people, takes himself off to the hills to commune with his Father. Perhaps this is how we should be spending Lent; taking extra time in prayer, spending more time alone with the Father.
As we prepare to observe the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and alms-giving, it is essential that we do not separate them from their focus which is the person of Jesus and the Gospel he brings. If we make our penances the focus in their own right, we will not produce the spiritual fruits we desire.
It is only by making Christ the centre of our Lenten observance that we will be ultimately overwhelmed by graces.
Father Alex McAllister
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