Newsletter – 3 March 2024
PARISH NEWS
Lenten Spring
I discovered recently that Lent means ‘spring’ and derives from the word ‘long’, or ‘lengthen’.
It refers to the lengthening of days when the sun releases the earth from her icy bondage, drawing leafy green from the now warming, fecund soil. It represents a turning from barrenness to fruitfulness – a return to life in all its diverse fullness. It is the affirmation that death will not have the last word, because the soil, from which life springs is itself redeemed death.
But it is hard for us fallen creatures to appreciate how far we have deviated from the fullness of life and love, and their ultimate object – God himself. We are accustomed to our winter, our retreat from life. We have so invested in its continuance – with our petty attachments and disordered loves – that we resist the winter thaw, tragically fearing the greening of spring to be a loss or a death rather than a release from it. Such is the nature of our sinful disorientation.
Our reorientation takes some time and requires work… the Church has therefore set aside forty days each year (roughly a tithe of the year) to devote to this work of reorientation… Lent is a season in which we voluntarily destabilize ourselves with some kind of fast (mini-death) that brings into focus the many ways we cooperate with death and our own soul’s freezing. But it gives us the opportunity to know the truth of our lives that we may turn (repent) and live. It loosens the soil of our souls so we can, with joy, receive the seed of salvation that comes to us by the grace of Christ’s death and resurrection.
This thoughtful litany, adapted from “A Lenten Prayer” by William Arthur Ward, affirms both the negation and the affirmation (feast and fast) that are key to Lenten renewal.
Fast from judging others; Feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from apparent darkness; Feast on the reality of Light.
Fast from pessimism; Feast on optimism.
Fast from thoughts of illness; Feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; Feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from anger; Feast on patience.
Fast from worry; Feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from complaining; Feast on appreciation.
Fast from hostility; Feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; Feast on forgiveness.
Fast from anxiety; Feast on hope.
Fast from yourself; Feast on a silent heart.
Steve Bell, Pilgrim Year: Lent
(Steve Bell is a Canadian musician and song writer)
Focus of the Week
ROCK THE MUSICAL
Sunday 24 March at 7.30pm
No tickets required, donations welcome towards pastoral activities of the parish.
COCKFOSTERS SUNDAY EVENING MASS
Sunday 3 March at 5.30pm
The Mass includes music in a relaxed atmosphere, and is followed by the Cockfosters Parish Pub. Sunday Evening Masses are held on the first Sunday of each month.