Parish Letter 

It is that time of the year, for me and no doubt for many others, to do a big clear out.  Papers, catalogues and magazines all need sorting.  As I don’t have a computer all messages come to me on paper and these tend to pile up.  The principle, I am told, in order to get this job done is don’t pick up the same piece of paper twice – decide, dump, deal with it or file.  Oh that it was as easy as that!!!

February is the month when spiritually we can have a clear out, or attend to that which needs action.  February 22 is Ash Wednesday and we all have the chance of making an effort to do something about our relationship with God.  Let’s dump that which we know is a barrier.  Let’s deal with what we know is a weakness so that as Lent progresses we can make positive steps in a renewed relationship.  Like the paper, don’t pick it up twice.  Make the decision and with prayer and discernment listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, act.

We can have a fixation about Lent as a period of penance or giving up something.  Because of our efforts in keeping this in mind we can miss the point of the season.  Here is a pattern we may like to follow.  Basically it is a preparation time for commemorating Holy Week – the Passion and Death of Christ and a celebration of Easter.  Our first question is, do we value what Christ has done for us?  Greater love no one has than that he lays down his life for his friends – you are my friends: the next is, what sort of love am I making for such great love He has shown me?  To answer these questions will give meaning to any penance we do, to any acts of Christian love we do to others, and to any extra prayers we say or meditation we give time to.  These are all positive actions and will repair our relationship with God.  Lent can be a time for sorting what we feel is ‘not quite right in our lives’.  Here there is a real danger.  I have picked this piece of paper up more than once, put it aside, but naggingly it keeps surfacing and I don’t seem to have done anything about it.

The Ash Wednesday liturgy can have two messages for us.  “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return” or “Repent of your sin and believe in the Gospel”.  The priest may choose one or other at the imposition of ash.  Let’s think of them both.                              Kevin F Gaskin