by Faith Central & Steve Welsh
“…Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain … He was Transfigured before them … His clothes became dazzling white … Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. …”
“‘… Who do you say that I AM?’ … ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus said … ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. … flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. …'”
“Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24: 12) … the Pasch of the Lord draws near! In our preparation for Easter, God in His Providence offers us each year the season of Lent as a ‘Sacramental Sign of our Conversion’ … to help the entire Church experience this time of grace anew, with joy and in truth. * * * More than anything else, what destroys charity is greed for money, ‘the root of all evil’ …. The rejection of God and His Peace soon follows … What are we to do? … devoting more time to prayer … Almsgiving sets us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbour as a brother or sister. … Fasting weakens our tendency to violence … an important opportunity for growth. … experience[ing]what the destitute and the starving … endure. … express[ing] our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbour. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger. … I urge the members of the Church to take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer. If, at times, the flame of charity seems to die in our own hearts, know that this is never the case in the heart of God! He constantly gives us a chance to begin loving anew. …”
“Pope Francis releases 2018 Lenten message: Full text” – Vatican Radio
http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-02/pope-francis-lenten-message-2018.html
“Pope Francis: ‘Come back to the Lord with all your heart during Lent’
http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-02/pope-francis-lent-message-2018-cold-hearts.html
“This Lent, revive your enthusiasm for the faith, Pope says” – CNA
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/this-lent-revive-your-enthusiasm-for-the-faith-pope-says-16801
“Pope Francis releases Lenten message” – CNS/Arlington Catholic Herald
https://www.catholicherald.com/News/National___International/Pope_Francis/Pope_Francis_releases_Lenten_message/
“This Lent, Pope Francis invites us to reject ‘false prophets’; The pope’s 2018 Lenten message is released” – OSV
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Perspectives/Columnists/Article/TabId/797/ArtMID/13632/ArticleID/24159/This-Lent-Pope-Francis-invites-us-to-reject-false-prophets.aspx
“Pope Francis’ Message for Lent 2015; ‘Make your hearts firm'” – OSV
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Faith/Article/TabId/720/ArtMID/13628/ArticleID/16821/Pope-Francis-Message-for-Lent-2015.aspx
[featured images are file photos]
Catholic TV Mass for Wednesday of the First Week of Lent, Feb. 21, 2018, from Catholic TV in the Archdiocese of Boston. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image is file photo]
“Jesus said … ‘This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. … as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. … At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.'”
“‘… Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done, on earth as in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. …'”
Catholic TV Mass for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent, Feb. 20, 2018, from Loretto Abbey in the Archdiocese of Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
Catholic TV Mass for Monday of the First Week of Lent, Feb. 19, 2018, from Loretto Abbey in the Archdiocese of Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
“Only with a total attitude — in his relationship with God … himself and … his neighbor — does man reach conversion and remain in the state of conversion. ‘Alms’ … has a meaning … decisive for this conversion. … recall the image of the Last Judgment that Christ gave us: ‘… I was hungry and you gave Me food. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink … a stranger and you welcomed Me. … naked and you clothed Me … sick and you visited Me … in prison and you came to Me. … * * * Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:35-40). … the Fathers of the Church will then say with St Peter Chrysologus: ‘The poor man’s hand is the treasury of Christ, since Christ receives everything that the poor man receives’ (Sermo VIII, 4), and with St. Gregory of Nazianzus: ‘The Lord of all things wants mercy, not sacrifice; and we give it through the poor’ (De patuperum amore, XI). … this opening to others … expressed by ‘help,’ by ‘sharing’ food, a glass of water, a good word, consolation, a visit, precious time, etc., this interior gift offered to the other man, arrives directly at Christ, directly at God. It decides the meeting with Him. It is conversion. … many texts in the Gospel … confirm this … also in the whole of Scripture. ‘Alms’ understood according to the Gospel, according to the teaching of Christ, has a definitive, decisive meaning in our conversion to God. If alms be lacking, our life does not yet converge fully towards God. …”
“If we consider it well, my brethren, the fact that Christ is hungry in those who are poor has something to say to us… Look: on one side a tiny coin and on the other, the Kingdom. What is the comparison? You give a small coin to a poor man and receive the Kingdom from Christ; you give a scrap of bread and receive eternal life from Christ; you give an item of clothing and receive forgiveness for your sins from Christ. …”