Dear Brother Knights,

The Lenten Reflections from the City of Calvary by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal can be of use for our newsletter so that by reading them we can meditate fruitfully for our Lenten season.

In his Lenten message for 2011, the Pope denounced greed, as if men wanted to “devour the world.” He stated, “we are often faced with the temptation of accumulating and allowing the love of money to undermine God’s primacy in our lives.”

In 2008, he courageously said: “According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbor.” Through this sharing and in communion, we live as in the early Church of Jerusalem. (“Apostolic Life” of the Early Christians in Acts 2 and 4; 2 Cor 8 and 9) The beloved apostle, John, wrote with severity: “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? (1 Jn 3:17).

The Holy Father’s Message for Lent this year takes the theme: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.” (Heb10:24) Pope Benedict stated that, “Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children.”

For us sinners, mortals constantly confronted with our failures, fasting is an effective way to demonstrate our repentance and the desire to set right our failings. “It was in this way that after Jonah’s warning, through penance and fasting the Ninevites avoided God’s wrath and were granted His mercy.” (Jonah 3:10).

In the tradition of the Church, Lent is a preparation for the Easter Triduum, the “days during which the Bridegroom will be taken away from among us,” (Mt 9:15) and raised on the Cross.

Lent is a forty-day journey, symbolically representing the forty years of the Hebrew people in the desert – it is a call:
a) To meditate on the mystery of the Cross, that we might conform ourselves to the death of Jesus, (cf Rom 6:5) in light of a radical change in our lives;
b) To be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, who will transform us, as he transformed Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus;
c) To adapt our lives with determination to the will of God, freeing ourselves from any egoism, lust for power, or avarice, by opening our hearts to the love of Christ and neighbor, especially the poor and the needy. Lent, as the Holy Father reminds us, is a providential time for us to recognize our frailty and welcome reconciliation, in order to orient ourselves to Christ.

May God bless you and your families in this grace filled season of Lent.

Fr.Leo Felix Monroe,
Council Chaplain