First Sunday of Lent

Dear Brother and Sisters,

LENT, a time of HOPE and REVIVAL!! 

God wants to make us new, bring new life into us. The Key thing is therefore our relationship with God. During Ash Wednesday we hear the classic Gospel (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18) that we hear every year: When you Pray, Fast and give Alms do it in relationship to God who sees in the secret and will repay you. It is so easy to go down the lane of what will I give up for lent, forgetting the key factor. Many do actually make great sacrifices, but is it in relation to God? I might give up coffee or chocolate or Social media, but why? 

Our Lady of Fatima, gives us an answer: "Do you wish to offer yourselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send you, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners?" (1st apparition to Lucia). We have 2 important elements:

WHY?: Conversion of sinners and reparation for sin. Here is the great reason. There is no bigger thing than the salvation of one soul!! It is easy that other secondary reasons come in and that the place of the primary. For example I need to lose weight or be more focused at work. These are pleasing to God, but are subordinate to the main reason which is the salvation of mankind. Now that might seem pretentious. But it is not. We underestimate the power that prayer and penance have! Our Lady of Fatima asks these 3 children to pray for the end of WWI. That is how powerful it is! Remember that when you pray you unleash the power of God. 

OFFER: We must offer our sacrifices! Not offering them is a great waste. It's like building a huge highway that does not connect cities. Building a highway is good in itself as denying something, but if it is not offered it loses its main purpose, you might be doing it to lose weight which is OK, but you lost the main part. Our Lady of Fatima on the 3rd apparition even suggests a formula: "O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." 

Have a blessed Mass and Lent!

Fr. Carlos