Dear Parishioners,

I hope you have all had a blessed beginning to this Lent season. On Saturday our RCIA candidates attended the Mass of Election at Westminster Cathedral, so do continue to keep them in your prayers. Do also pray that our confirmation group may have a wonderful experience next week as we attend the Flame conference at Wembley. We have now begun a new season of Lent. And the gospel reading for today reminds us of the origin of this season. We are called to remember Jesus’s 40 days in the desert. It comes straight after His Baptism and is proceeded by the Holy Spirt leading Him into mission. This time in the desert was part of Jesus preparation for this active ministry. We too are called to live Lent as a time of preparation.
We read in the gospel that Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Like Him we are invited to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, trusting even if sometimes we are led into challenging places, situations and experiences.

Often when all is well in our lives, faith may seem to come easily to us. But in trying times, in desert type experiences in our lives, this is where temptations seem the greatest. We may doubt Gods goodness, we may question why or blame Him, it may lead us a lack of trust or to lose faith. This is all part of the journey of life with God, where we allow situations to shape us and grow our relationship with Him. In our more desert like, challenging experiences we try to learn from Jesus to stay firm, not to give into the temptation to lose faith and trust even in moments where we might not understand.
Jesus stood up to temptations in His desert experience. In Lent we practice with prayer, fasting and alms giving to resist temptations. These actions that the church recommends are a time of preparation and practice. We may be in a metaphorical desert facing these temptations and needing to find the strength to resist and trust in God. But even if we are not, prayer, alms giving and fasting, can help us when the trials and temptations come. They can help us and teach us to be resilient, to resist and continue to place our faith, trust and hope in God.

The first reading and Psalm give us tools for when we are in those desert experience. They remind us of how important it is to remember and make memory of the good that God has done for us, the way he has looked after us and protected us in the past teaching us to depend more and more on Him. This remembering becomes something that we can lean on and can strengthen us and our faith when we are in trials and temptations. I pray that we may all have a fruitful lent and that we may be open to allowing the experience to deepen our relationship with Him.

Have a Blessed Sunday

Ann Marie, FMVD