Ash Wednesday: 14th February, 2018
Joel 2: 12-18; 2 Cor 5: 20 - 6:2; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18
It's the holy season of Lent again: Happy Lent!
Don't consider that a strange wish! Lent is meant to be a happy season: it is no season of mourning, but a happy season of a return to home, from all the wandering. If this season has to move towards a fruitful direction, then we have to heed to the four fold call that Lent has...
LISTEN to the Word: the first call is to listen to the Word. Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, says the Lord. We have to make it a habit of listening to the Word of the Lord on a daily basis. Lent can be a training, a tuning into that habit.
ENCOUNTER the Lord: In the Word, in the daily events, in the people whom we meet, in the people whom we don't like to meet, in those whom we avoid on purpose, we are called to encounter the Lord. An encounter is more than just a coming across; it is bouncing into someone, beholding the person in all entirety and building up a positive loving relationship!
NURTURE relationships: We believe that Lord Our God is fundamentally a unity of three persons. The season invites us to come in touch with the Lord, through various means -to nurture the relationships that we have received from the Lord. By the very image and likeness we bear and by the gift we have received at our baptism, we are called to be people who value and treasure relationships, with God and with others.
TRANSFORM yourself: The ultimate call is transformation. Conversion, Repentance, Return, Reconcile, Change... we would hear these words more often these days. The Lord invites us to pass through this period of reflection and self evaluation, that we may come out with concrete plans of action that would transform our lives.
We shall commence from today, a series of thoughts on "RevivaLent" ... a lent that calls us to a revival, revival of our love! Pope Francis sets us a task this lent: Because of the increase in iniquity, the love of many will grow cold...and we are called to revive that love, that love that is endangered today, the true Christian love!
It is curious that Lenten Journey begins on the Valentine's day this year...a hype about love, though we hardly are certain they know what the hype is all about! What is the kind of love to be revived? How can it be revived? And how I can be instrumental in that revival? These are the questions we shall set ourselves to think about.
Let us revive love this lent!
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