Dear Parish Family,
This weekend we celebrate the First Sunday in Lent.
In the Gospel the Devil tempts Jesus during his forty days in the desert. Jesus rejects the Devil’s suggestions and chooses to love and obey God his Father.
Pope St. Leo the Great on Fasting
“Enter upon the celebration of the solemn fast, not with barren abstinence from food … but in bountiful benevolence. … Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s income is small, whose heart is big. …” (Excerpt from Sermon 40)
These acts of self-denial help us to free ourselves from worldly distractions, to express our longing for Jesus. We pray that, following Jesus’ example, we may remain faithful to God.
God Bless you as we journey through this Lenten Season,
Fr. Cyrus
