Tuesday 18 March 2014

Readings for Tuesday 18 March 2014 
Is 1:10, 16-20. Ps 49:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23, R/ v 23. www.catholicbishops.ie/readings

Lent meaning ‘springtime’ calls to mind new beginnings. Spring cleaning destroys the dirt and grime of dark winter. The harrowing by penance and prayer prepares the Christian for the implanting of the seed that will bring an abundant harvest.

Memorial of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and doctor of the Church. Saint Cyril (315-86), Bishop of Jerusalem excelled as a catechist and administrator.

Pope Francis in Prayer News.Va

Pope Francis on Twitter
“Let us never lose hope! God loves us always, even with our mistakes and sins.”

Excerpt from Evangelii Gaudium The Joy of the Gospel 

Evangelii Gaudium

“Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people.. – Evangelii Gaudium 270

Video: Bishop Brendan Leahy on the Creed

the creed

Bishop Brendan Leahy introduces the section of the Creed on God the Father. For more on this series please see www.catholicbishops.ie/creed

Daily Lenten Prayer
Today Lord, I choose life,
I choose your love and the challenge to live it and share it,
I choose hope, even in moments of darkness,
I choose faith, accepting you as Lord and God,
I choose to let go of some part of my burdens,
day by day handing them over to you,
I choose to take hold of your strength and power ever more deeply in my life.
May this truly be for me a time of new life, of change, challenge and growth.
May I come to Easter with a heart open to dying with you
and rising to your new life, day by day.

keeping a holy lent

Resources on the Vatican website for Lent 2014 
The Vatican is collating all the resources for Lent 2014 on a special link on the home page of www.vatican.va. It includes the catechesis, addresses and homilies of the Holy Father, information on liturgical events and video and other multimedia content. Click here to access it.

The Meaning of Lent
The English word ‘Lent’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, meaning ‘Spring’. In other languages the word comes from the Latin, Quadragesima – a period of 40 days.  In the Christian tradition the forty days is understood to refer to a time of intense prayer and preparation; we remember the biblical stories of Noah and the flood of 40 days, the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness and Christ’s forty day fast in the desert in preparation for his earthly ministry.