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4th Sunday of Lent

On the feast of The Annunciation on Friday Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary .  In union with the whole Church we continue to pray for peace in that region as well as the rest of the world. In the Gospel story for this Sunday we hear the story of the Prodigal Son, the contrast between the two brothers is quite sharp. After wasting his share of his father’s fortune the younger brother recognizes the mistakes he has made and returns home looking for the mercy of his father when he says: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son” (Lk 15: 18-19, 21). The older brother takes a different sort of attitude one of arrogance not only towards his brother but also towards his father! His scolding is in great contrast with the tenderness of the father who comes out of the house and goes to meet him to ask him to go into the house (Lk 15: 20, 28)

When we hear this story the big question that we should ask ourselves is what does God do when we turn away from him like the younger son in the Gospel? He does exactly the same as the Father in the gospel story did he waits and when we return he goes out to meet the returning Son or Daughter with endless love. The gospel story of the Prodigal Son is an image of God the Father who invites us to return to experience his love for us when we go far away from him. Of course being given a second chance is not always fair or just and we see this from the reaction of the older son who complains in a big way about his Father not giving him something to celebrate with his friends.  We remember that second chances are invitations to move forward leaving our old selves behind. Leaving our old selves behind and getting another chance is why we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession. This sacrament is a chance to the wipe the slate clean, a time to start anew as a child of the Father.

May we like the Prodigal Son not be afraid to come back for we will be received with open arms like the Father in the Gospel story god will come out to meet us with great compassion and love as we remember his compassion and love for us  is without measure and knows no end. Over the next few weeks as we head towards the celebration of Holy Week and Easter there will be many chances for confession in our parishes may we take the chance to make that step to return as the father is waiting to welcome all of us.

Prayer for Peace in Eukraine

on Friday in Rome at 5pm (Local time) in Saint Peters Basilica Pope Francis will consecreate Russia to the Imaculate Heart of mary the text of the consecreation Prayer is given Here

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART

OF MARY

O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.

Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.

Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.

Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.

Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.

Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.

Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.

Third Sunday of Lent

Last Thursday was Saint Patricks Day, It was on the 17^th March 2020 that we began the hard slog of the Lockdowns and all the things that COVID19  brought to us. Sadly many people have lost their lives over the past 2 years and we pray for them and their families as we look to the future. We also thank God for the health care professionals and the volunteers that have done so much and are continuing to work for the common good. But as we know Ukraine is also in our minds and at the heart of our prayers as we continue to pray for peace. Next Friday Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the feast of the  Annunciation. Wherever you are on Friday please take a quiet moment to say a prayer for peace during the day as we join with the pope as he makes the consecration .In our Gospel reading for this Sunday we hear the parable of the fig-tree it is stressed that the time will come for a last chance to bear fruit.   This parable is a wakeup call and it tells us that Lent  is a good time to make the changes we have been putting off and know we must do in order to make ourselves bear spiritual fruit.

The gardener in the Gospel asked the owner of the vineyard to give the barren fig tree another chance to produce fruit. He promised to dig around it and manure it, to give it one last chance to prove itself.  So it is with us God gives us this annual time of Lent to prove ourselves. We are called to use the 6 weeks of lent well as there are many things in our lives that we need to change. Do we bear good fruit? Do we flower and bring forth good works? It is a time for us to consider our way of living our lives and what it means. It is a time when the word of the Lord will lift us up and encourage us to blossom and bear spiritual fruit.  This Sunday we see that our lives are enriched and by sharing in the work and message of Jesus the beloved Son of God who is our saviour. When we get out there and share our time talents and resources we are sharing in the work of Jesus bringing his kingdom into the lives of those around us.   When we  die to sin and come to repentance for our sins we identify ourselves in a real and concrete way with the redemptive power of Christ who died on the cross and rose again from the dead for all of us.  

Our calling, then, is to be strong, giving witness to our faith in the days of Lent as we go forward to Holy Week and Easter  so that others will see what we believe in and as a result of our example they might even take up the challenge that Jesus gives to all of us to follow him on the road that leads to salvation.

Second Sunday of Lent

As we reach the second Sunday of Lent we continue our prayers for Ukraine and its people, we pray for a change of heart for the leadership of Russia so that peace can return to the region.  This Sunday we hear the gospel story of the Apostles going up the mountain were the voice of God reveals Jesus’ true identity: «This is my Son, the Chosen One Listen to him». For many, mountains are a place of encounter with God with Moses encountering God on a mountaintop, so did Elijah, and it was a favorite place of prayer for Jesus too. This particular gospel scene is traditionally considered as Jesus’ transfiguration and is reported in the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s not possible to reconstruct with certainty the experience that led to this surprising story: we only know that the Gospel writers give it great importance, since it is told as an experience that gives a glimpse of Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God. The splendid vision in our Gospel for this Sunday comes after Jesus had said that “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Lk 9:22).

This was not the good news that the disciples wanted to hear as they expected Jesus, as the Messiah, to drive out the Roman army of occupation and restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). Many of them would have begun to have second thoughts: Is Jesus really the expected Messiah? The transformation or transfiguration of Jesus that the disciples experienced was not simply something they were to see and experience as happening to him alone. It was also an invitation for them to undergo a transformation and transfiguration of their own. How is that transformation or transfiguration to take place in each of our own lives? We will be transfigured by listening to Jesus, listening to all that he invites us to be and do, however much it may seem to go against the conventions that we were brought up on and the way of the world today. It means especially listening to those words which caused such difficulty for Peter and his companions and integrating them into our own vision of life. In short It means having a total trust in walking his Way, a total trust that only his Way brings us  into full union with God, the source of all truth, love, happiness and peace. We know that Christ “had to suffer and thus enter into his glory.” We also understand the purpose of Christ’s passion was that we, in spite of our own mortality, might enter into eternal glory. So the question for all of us this Sunday is are we going  to be transfigured this Lent from what we are with all its worldly ways into Gods new creation remembering that Jesus came into the world  so that we might have life and have it to the full.

First Sunday of Lent

We continue to pray for Ukraine and its people as we continue our Lenten journey on this the first Sunday of Lent. In every area of our lives there is an ongoing need for renewing and refocusing. Lent is our annual spring clean of our spiritual lives renewing our faith as a preparation for celebrating the events of Holy Week in which there are so many messages for us. In our Gospel story for this Sunday  we hear about Jesus being tempted in the dessert  before he set out to do his Fathers work Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and prayer and during this time he was tempted by the devil.

The devil tempted him to use his power to take care of himself, prove his identity by performing astounding signs and make alliances with political and military powers to get himself and his message across to the people. But that was not the way of the Son of God. Jesus  response to the temptations of the devil was that you shall not put the lord your God to the test.  Many of us put God to the test with the things that we do and say and so many have completely left their faith behind them. As we begin Lent for this year we ask ourselves how do we face the temptations of life? When times get rough and we feel alone, do we still trust in God? When our life just seems empty, do we still believe in the Father who loves us? Are we willing to risk everything for the sake of the Gospel, or do we settle for guarding our own security? Do we make our authority felt so that people are degraded, or is it a real service to others these are questions that all of us need to ask ourselves and Lent gives us the opportunity to do this.

Over the next 6 weeks we live our lives of faith  taking the time and opportunities offered to grow in that faith.  During the time of Lent We are invited to recommit ourselves fully to God and his ways  remembering that Jesus preaches “Metanoia”  that is Repentance or Coming back.  Coming back to God and returning requires change of heart, mind and Spirit.  There are many temptations in the life of the follower of Christ but our Father in heaven always welcomes back the repentant sinner the one who says have mercy on me for I am a sinner. So on this first Sunday of Lent as we think about the temptation of Jesus in  the dessert  we think about how we may increase our Faith in preparation for Holy Week and the great feast of Easter. There will be many opportunities for renewing our spiritual selves through times of Prayer and courses of instruction and most importantly the chance to get daily Mass. May we make good use of our Lenten journey so at the end of Lent we will be able to hear and understand the messages that Holy Week and Easter  have for us, So that renewed in heart mind and spirit having heard the messages we will be more able to put them into action in our own lives in the times that lie  ahead.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Tomorrow  is Ash Wednesday and as we continue to come out from the darkness of the pandemic we are beginning the Penitential Season of Lent. This is the first time in nearly 2 years that we will be celebrating Lent and Easter properly  with all the possibilities they provide for us. The vestments colour changes from the hopeful green of ordinary time to the penitential purple of Lent and the cry of this day and the whole of the next six weeks is repent and believe in the good news. For many of us we will be leaving things behind for the 6 weeks of Lent and we will also be taking up many things as well to revive our spiritual selves. During the season of Lent we take stock of where we are in our lives and where we really need to be as people who believe in God. As we continue our  Faith journey during the 40 days of Lent we are invited to recommit ourselves fully to God and his ways remembering that god’s ways are not our ways.

Jesus preaches “Metanoia”  that is Repentance or Coming back.  Coming back to God requires change of heart, mind and Spirit.  The six  weeks of Lent are a time of spiritual refreshment, a time of repentance and also a time of renewal that prepare us for Holy Week and Easter as well as everything else.  Will the ashes we receive on ash Wednesday be ashes that help us change our ways and our not so good habits or will they make little or no difference to our daily lives. Let us ask ourselves whether we are open to be changed as people of faith so we will be able to enter more fully into the great ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter when they come around. There is much work to be done as we begin lent so let us not be afraid to take up the challenges we are offered and there will be many. Among those will be the early morning Mass, the alms giving to the Charitable organizations like Trocaire and Cafod as well as the various programs offered at parish and pastoral area levels and all of this is good. Now however it over to each person to make up his/her mind regarding  what you want to do in 2022 to make Lent spiritually  special for you.