The Prodigal Son
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“So it was that after he came to his senses the younger son set out on a new journey ….  he had realised that it is precisely work, humility and daily discipline that create the true feast and true freedom. So he returned home, inwardly matured and purified: he had understood what living is. Of course, in the future his life would not be easy either, temptations would return, but he was henceforth fully aware that life without God does not work; it lacks the essential, it lacks light, it lacks reason, it lacks the great sense of being human. He understood that we can only know God on the basis of his Word.
 
We Christians can add that we know who God is from Jesus, in whom the face of God has been truly shown to us. The young man understood that God’s Commandments are not obstacles to freedom and to a beautiful life, but signposts on the road on which to travel to find life. He realized too that work and the discipline of being committed, not to oneself but to others, extends life. And precisely this effort of dedicating oneself through work gives depth to life, because one experiences the pleasure of having at last made a contribution to the growth of this world that becomes freer and more beautiful.”
Pope Benedict 16th

“Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth
            Who we are
            Where we come from
            Where we must go
What path we must take in life”

​Pope Benedict the 16th

Lenten Joy
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“In the short chapter on Lent in St Benedict’s Rule he twice mentions the joy of the Holy Spirit, once by making an offering to God “with the Joy of the Holy Spirit” and once by waiting for Easter “in the joy of holy desire”.  For St Benedict Lent is now a season of torture but a season of joy.”
Dom Henry Wansborough OSB
May our Second week of Lent be a joyful time of restraint and preparation for the Easter mystery

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.