First Sunday of Lent
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let us live Lent as Forty Days of Preparation! For the next forty days we shall prepare for the great feast of Easter, when the Church will celebrate and proclaim the Resurrection of Christ. In six weeks time together with Christians throughout the world we shall celebrate the Easter Triduum: on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and in the Easter liturgies. Over the forty days of Lent the Church invites us to renew our hearts and minds, our lives, so that we may wholeheartedly proclaim the Risen Christ with the light and warmth of the flame of our faith. From the earliest times Christian tradition proposes that during Lent we renew, even rediscover, the power of faith in Christ by strengthening our prayer, and by undertaking fasting and alms-giving.
Children: I invite you to learn a new prayer during Lent. Your parents and/or teachers will help you. What will you give up for Lent? Can you put some of your sweet money in the Trocaire Box? I invite you
Youth: Can you single out a good deed you can undertake for Lent?
Will you deny yourself something: sweets, alcohol …?
Will you contribute something to a good cause this Lent?
Why not read up on the origins of Lent by reading an article on Lent,
e.g. in The Catholic Encyclopedia?
Adults: What does Lent mean to you?
Do you take these forty days as an annual time for personal renewal?
Will you make a contribution to a good cause?
The choice to “give up something for Lent” can lead to profound personal renewal.
Yours sincerely,
+ Noel Treanor
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