Listening and Fasting

Lent as a Time of Conversion 

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 - ASH WEDNESDAY

February 18 - Joel 2: 12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

We begin the holy season of Lent for this year - a Time of Conversion, as Pope Leo describes it for us this year. In his message for this Lent Holy Father reflects on the theme, Listening and Fasting. The opening theme itself is striking... where is the connection between listening and fasting? It is a simple and clear call for us to remember that all our fasting (spiritual exercises of penance) should come from listening (experience of prayer). When these two are separated from each other, we fall into empty ritualism or meaningless legalism.

Secondly, we see that the Holy Father intends to highlight for us three inner movements of our being - the journey of our spirit: first movement indicated by the world listening, a second movement of fasting and the third movement of doing all these, together. This can be termed as interior movement, exterior movement and communal movement. We shall deepen our reflection on these terms, all through this season, with the help of the Word that would inspire us in this light. 

A third reflection proper to today, would be as the Word points out today - our lenten practices will become effectively a time of conversion, when they are Sincere, Spiritual and Secret.

Let our lenten practices be sincere, that is coming straight from our hearts - not from our calculations, scheming ways or our capacity to project an image to others. As Prophet Joel instructs us today, it has to be from the heart, breaking the heart and transforming the heart, thus making us new persons little by little during these days.

Let our lenten practices be Spiritual, that is inspired by the Spirit who brings us into communion with the Lord who bids us to celebrated this profound time of coversion. As St. Paul reminds us, the ultimate aim of all that we do, big or small, internal or external, material or spiritual, has to be greater communion with the Loving Mercy that surrounds us, the God who has called us to renewal and reformation. 

Let our lenten practices be secret, that is known only to us and to God our Father and Mother who sees everything in secret... that we may not go by merely external signs but focus on the internal meaning of those, that we may not seek the approval or appreciation of those around us but feel assured and strengthen by the Presence so intimate to us, growing every day mindful of and grateful for that accompanying Presence. 

Let us begin this time of conversion... a time not just an event, and that of conversion and not merely a commemoration. The call is clear - we begin a journey today, gradually and constantly striving to get closer and closer to God, to be transformed by Love. Happy Lent. 

Do you still not understand?!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 17, 2026 - 1 James 1: 12-18; Mark 8: 14-21

How agitated Jesus gets today with his disciples! Jesus expects them to rise above the ordinary or the normal. As Jesus warned us this Sunday: if our perfection does not surpass those that of the scribes and the pharisees, that is if we do not rise above the 'usual' way the world looks at reality, we will not be considered fit for the Reign of God! 

The so-called normal attitudes of the world, the value systems propagated as "normal" by the world, the life style of the so-called successful that stands counter to what the Gospel teaches... these are the temptations that we have today! Of course, they do not come from God, reiterates St. James. 

Our desires, temptations, sin and resultant death: this is the cycle that Jesus wants us to understand, resist, surpass, and triumph over. None of us can ever say after an act of unrighteousness, that we were not at all aware of its nature! Let us not deceive ourselves! 

We know what we are surrounded by, we know what we go through on a daily basis and we know what is appreciable and what is not worthy of our call to be children of God. Inspite of all the graces that we have obtained and the gratuitous gifts that we have received from the Lord, if we still insist on giving up on our call to commitment and righteous living, we will soon hear that question addressed to us by Jesus: do you still not understand?

The Lord our Rock

WORD 2day: Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 16, 2026 - James 1: 1-11; Mark 8: 11-13

During his life and ministry, Jesus was convinced that he had nothing to prove, to no one! He was what he was - the Son of God, the Word Incarnate. He spoke what he believed and lived what he spoke. That gave him an authority that the Pharisees and the Scribes could never understand. It came from his holistic self-understanding, an understanding in terms of the ONE who had sent him: "For I and the Father are one", he declared (Jn 10:30). 

Many a time we identify ourselves with the riches we have, the social status we enjoy, the titles and the offices we hold, the adulation from others and the image that others have of us. We are concerned and fixated on achievements and social images we create of ourselves. But these are like the drooping flowers and the fading beauty, reminds St. James. 

Our identity has to rest on that one thing that never changes - the truth that we are sons and daughters of the One God, that we are created in the image and the likeness of that One God who has loved us into existence. When we get this fact imprinted clearly on our hearts... no trial or doubt, no suffering or shock will ever affect our perseverance (Jas 1:4). 

Let our life be founded on that unshakable foundation, the Lord, our Rock!

FEB 14 - A REFLECTION

Saints Cyril, Methodius and Valentine - The Call to be in Love!

The Word reaching a people is not a simple happening or a non characteristic event - it is a definitive self revelation of God being extended to that part of humanity! Those who are involved become blessed instruments in the hands of the Lord, according to the heart of the Lord. They become the most beautiful feet on earth, carrying the most life-giving of all things in the world - the Word of the Lord.  

However, there are more than a few elements that have to come together if this blessed experience has to be realised. Looking at it as a basic communication, there is the Sender who has to will it and there has to be the receiver who is prepared to receive it; there has to be a medium which will carry it, amidst all the noise that will surround to disturb it; and above all and at the heart of it all rests the message that is being communicated, which has to be conceived and represented in its utmost originality! 

It is in this context that the saints whom we celebrate today come into consideration. Be it Saints Cyril and Methodius, or any other Apostle for that matter who is called and sent, there is the medium being chosen by the Lord! The effectiveness of this medium is determined by the fact of how much the medium is taken up with the message; how much the medium knows and treasures the message; how much the medium has interiorised the message - and this is what we call - being in love, which translates as the medium becoming the message! 

Celebrating also the popular feast of the patron of those in love - St. Valentine, today the question we are inspired to ask ourselves is this: how much in love am I with the message, as a medium! The reason we need to ask this question is crucially this: because the call to be an apostle, is a call to be in love! 

ASCOLTARE E DIGIUNARE

La Quaresima - il tempo di conversione

Messaggio del Santo Padre Leone XIV per la Quaresima 2026

QUARESIMA 2026 - PAPA LEONE XIV

LISTENING & FASTING

Lent - a time of Conversion

Message of Pope Leo XIV for Lent 2026 

LENTEN MESSAGE 2026 - POPE LEO XIV

LAW: LOVE & ABIDE by the WORD

Faith is a choice, a choice to obey

February 15, 2026: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sirach 15: 16-21; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Choice is the central theme running through the readings today! And there is another dominant theme that qualifies this choice - that is LAW. Law for the people of Israel was the way ordained by the Lord. Law was for them the guarantee of remaining people of God; it was their part of executing the covenant that the Lord made with them: I shall be your God and you shall be my people! To speak or act against the law was for them a serious and punishable offence. There is a discussion on two other themes- "maturity" and "wisdom" in the second reading from St.Paul. Combining all these, Jesus in the Gospel presents to us a mature and wise attitude towards LAW. He invites us to Choose LAW... that is to choose to Love and Abide by the Word.

Faith is a Choice...

Faith is not a blind leap, it is a conscious Choice! As the very first encyclical that Pope Francis gave us, Lumen Fidei (n.3) affirms, faith cannot be associated with darkness, instead faith is a light that enlightens one to choose, to choose believe in God, to choose to see God alive in one's life. 

The first reading presents to us the same perspective today, we have the choice between water and fire, between good and evil, between true joy and fleeting pleasures, between the right and the convenient, between conviction and compromise, between life and death! The choice is ours! We cannot ride on the shoulders of tradition and custom, and justify our acts and habits. We have to grow up! Our maturity has to be seen in the wisdom we possess. It is God who gives us this wisdom, as St.Paul reminds us. Jesus embodies that wisdom and presents the same to us in his words: I have come not to abolish the law, but bring it to its fulfillment.

A Choice beyond the Law...

Jesus declares that his disciples should make a choice not against the law but beyond the law! He gives a new meaning to law, and presents the way to go beyond, to transcend a mere slavish legalism and reach the heights of saintly perfection, through love and compassion. The words of Jesus, "You have heard that it was said,...but I say to you", heard repeatedly in the Gospel today presents Jesus as the New Moses, and describes the community of disciples as the New People of God! "See I am making all things new," declares Jesus by this (Rev. 21:5). The new law...today how do we understand that new law, the law beyond the law... L - to Love, A - to Abide, and W - the Word. To love the Word and Abide by it...is the new law that Jesus gives. 

The Word presents to us a guarantee to sanctity. To know the Word, to reflect on it and understand it, to love it and strive to abide by it, is the sure way to be real children of God, worthy people of God. Our life does not comprise merely of avoiding evil, it is much more profound and meaningful. It is to live, to love, to relate, to do good, to mature, to be happy, to make others happy and thus together as a community of God's children, to renew the world and fill it with joy.

To Obey the Law...

Jesus teaches the people today not to go against the law but to understand what it really means to obey the law. For Him, to obey the law was not to obey the word of the law but to obey the Lord of the law! It was so for the people of Israel; they obeyed the law as an act of obedience to YHWH. But when the Lord of the law was with them, and they did not realise it. The Word lived and moved among them, but they did not comprehend it. The danger for us too is the same: that we may be by definition the best of Christians - missing no Sunday Mass, regular with reading the Bible and reciting the prayers, strict with our fasting and abstinence, visiting as many pilgrim shrines as possible - but let us beware, we may be missing the point. These are good but not good enough - the Word instructs us: Love and Abide by the Word... to love the Word, and to live by it; not being merely hearers of the Word but doers(Jam 1:22); to say YES to the Word and mean it, to face all the consequences of that Yes and live through it. 

Our YES to the Word has to be our choice, our choice to go beyond the Law and obey the Lord of the law, to live and fill the earth with love and compassion; to challenge the present standards of the world towards a new world, new heaven and new earth!

Divided lives and Devilish intents

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in Ordinary time 

February 14, 2026 - 1 Kings 12: 26-32, 13: 33-34; Mark 8: 1-10

For the people of Israel there was no difference between their political life and their religious life. For them everything was just one - an integral mode of living as people of God, forever the people of the Covenant: 'I shall be your God and you shall be my people'. But at a certain point, as we read in the first reading today, the misery befalls them - Politics and Religion part their ways. 

Something that happens further makes things worse: using religion for political ends or politics for religious reasons. It becomes almost an unjust alliance, and remains so even to this day! That could be history... but the alarming fact is that it can happen in our personal lives too: the division between our religious life and our civil life, and worse still if we use one for the manipulation of the other. 

Jesus is totally against this division and considers it always an hypocrisy. One cannot call oneself a shepherd and still remain untouched by the miseries of the people. We see how sensitive he was, and how he taught that to his disciples. One cannot call oneself a 'Christ-ian' and live a life that is totally insensitive towards others. One cannot call oneself a child of God and look down on his brother or sister, or much worse ill-treat, exploit or oppress them. If one does that, he or she is giving into idolatry, claiming to belong to Christ but divided within oneself, externally professing Christ but totally against Christ at the level of the inner self.

Pride, Rebellion and Hearing God's voice...

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 13, 2026 - 1 Kings 11: 29-32, 12:19; Mark 7: 31-37

The readings today speak of two kingdoms... one that was ending and the other which was rising. Prophet Ahijah instructs Jeroboam about the role that he has to play in the fall of David's kingdom. And in the Gospel we see the people who rejoice at the coming of the Kingdom (Reign) of God: "the deaf hear and the mute speak" they exclaim - that phrase was symbolic and indicative of the Reign of God to the people of Israel. 

The message is obvious - it is an invitation to turn away from a tendency of human pride and rebellion and place the absolute dominion always in the hands of God. Right from the beginning (explained by the stories of Adam and Eve, the tower of Babel and so on), the ruin of humankind has been due to human pride; that has always been, indeed, the entry point of sin into humanity has been rebellion. 

It is in that rebellion and pride that we make gods for ourselves - making gods of our own ego, of our successes, of our plans and projects, of our prospects and the social ladders, of our attachments and cravings. At times, only when drastic things happen we realise our folly! Unfortunately that realisation too is short-lived... just round the corner we begin to accumulate weight on our heads... going around with haughty heads and stiff necks!

The Lord says to us today: I am the Lord you God, hear my voice! We would repeat that in the responsorial... let it remind us of what Jesus wants to do to us. "Be opened" he says, not only to our ears, but to our hearts that we would listen to God's voice. Because it would do so much good to us, if we make it our habit to hear the Lord's voice and live by it everyday.

Saints who surprise God!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 12, 2026 - 1 Kings 11: 4-13; Mark 7: 24-30

The most dangerous character of sin is, it takes over "little by little," that all too soon we find it too late for an escape! Solomon, seemed to be the sign of God's glory in the early days of his kingship (just yesterday we reflected on it, as to how international his fame had become), but soon finds himself at a point of no return, because he had given away his heart "little by little" to ways that took him away from God! 

We know sin can be, in very simple words, understood as a rebellion against God... a lack of surrender into God's hands. If so, then the remedy would be: a childlike surrender into the hands of God; following God unreservedly as did David (1Kgs 11:6); a faith that becomes a humble surrender to God's Will, like the Syrophoenician woman that we see in the Gospel today. 

This simple woman we encounter, becomes the prototype of the numerous saints who manage to surprise God... they surprised God by their total, absolute, unprecedented surrender... like St.Paul, or the early martyrs, or the later saints like John Maria Vianney, or Maxmillian Kolbe, or great models like Bishop Oscar Romero, Sr. Rani Maria... the list goes on, and the challenge is that we add our names to that list. 

Let our surrender to the Lord be so total, that in God's pleasant surprise miracles begin to abound. Yes, we are called as God's beloved children, to surprise our loving God, by our surrender... that will be the real meaning of growing in holiness.