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. Robert Herrick 1648
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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 The Presentation of the Lord
The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is kept on Tuesday 2nd February and it marks the very end of the Christmas Season. This feast is celebrated forty days after Christmas and it is the day when we remove the Christmas Crib from the Church. We remember how the baby Jesus was presented by his parents in the Temple and where they made the necessary sacrifice for him. We recall how the Prophet Simeon took Jesus in his hands and sang out the song of praise we know as the Nunc Dimittis: “Now let your servant depart in peace because my eyes have seen your salvation.” This feast is also known as Candlemas because on this day we bless the candles used in the Church during the coming year. In modern times it is also kept as a special; Day of Prayer for those who have embraced the Consecrated Life. We keep this commemoration on the Feast of the Presentation because of the strong parallels between Christ’s consecration to God in the Temple and the special consecration made by those who have entered Religious Orders. Father Alex McAllister The Call of the First Apostles
This Sunday we read about the call of the Apostles. What is striking about this account is how those first Apostles immediately dropped everything to follow Jesus. In the world of today we all have so many commitments, so many things that keep us in one place, that it is hard to conceive of just letting go of everything in order to follow the Lord. It is easy for us to believe that at the time of Christ there were fewer commitments and obligations and so believe that it was easier for the Apostles to let go of their day-to-day commitments. But if you think about it, we soon realise that this cannot have been the case. In a society much poorer than ours it was even more important to secure a regular income. With bigger families and the responsibility of looking after the elderly there were also more commitments and obligations to the extended family. So, let us not think that it was easy for those Apostles to make such a radical commitment to Christ. Let us instead take them as our inspiration and endeavour to follow the path that they walked; maybe not by leaving our families but by committing ourselves wholeheartedly to spreading the teaching of Christ. Samuel
The story of the boy Samuel hearing God calling him that we are presented with as our First Reading today is one of the more wonderful stories we find in the Bible. It did not take the old High Priest Eli very long to realise that the boy was being called directly by God. In adulthood following the disastrous defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines, Samuel rallied his humiliated people and won for himself recognition as a great judge and prophet. Samuel is seen as the first of the major prophets and was to annoint as King both Saul and David. As a prophet he travelled each year through the whole country rebuking the people and calling them to repentance. He is regarded as one of the wisest of the leaders of Israel. He is also viewed as one of those who foreshadowed Christ, giving the people an insight into what the coming Messiah would be like. Father Alex McAllister Hymn from the Divine Office
for the Feast of the Epiphany Fairer than the sun at morning was the star that told his birth; to the lands their God announcing, hid beneath a form of earth. By its lambent beauty guided, see, the eastern kings appear; see them bend, their gifts to offer, gifts of incense, gold and myrrh. Solemn things of mystic meaning: incense doth the God disclose; gold a royal Child proclaimeth; myrrh a future tomb foreshows. Holy Jesu, in thy brightness to the Gentile world displayed, with the Father and the Spirit endless praise to thee be paid. What the Holy Family shows us at Christmas
Christmas is for many of us, a time when families get together. We remember friends especially those who are no longer with us and those family and friends who live far away. Sometimes this brings great joy as we catch up on news. Sometimes it's hard going and we need patience in tolerating familiar bad habits, coping with old hurts and negotiating unrealistic expectations. Many will be glad when Christmas is over. Nevertheless, there is a deeper point to our family gathering. We instinctively recognise the importance of the bond of flesh and blood. We know that, in a family, we irrevocably belong to each other, no matter the distances that may separate us, or the rows we have lived through. We still look to our family for recognition, acceptance and love even when that hope is unfulfilled. So, when you see the crib this Christmas, don't see in it an image of a vanishing world of father, mother and child. See, rather, a reminder of the truth about our human nature and a source of new encouragement and determination for us all. Extract from: The Daily Telegraph 23/12/07 by Cardinal Vincent Nichols When the Song of the Angels is Stilled
When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart. Howard Thurman Modern Day John the Baptists
The task given to St John the Baptist was to prepare the people for the appearance of Christ. Jesus had of course been born thirty years beforehand but it was only after his Baptism at the hands of John in the River Jordan that Jesus finally begins his public ministry. To avoid misunderstanding, John the Baptist explains that he is not the Messiah and goes on to tell the people, as best as he is able, just what this coming Messiah was to be like. In a way this is our task too; to explain to those around us just who the Son of God is and what he achieved in the world, and how important is the salvation he brought for us. Father Alex |
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