ST. EUGENE CATHOLIC MISSION AND STUDENT CENTER
  • Home
  • Sundays
  • Sacraments
  • Ministries
  • Español
  • Contact
  • EVENT CALENDAR
  • Advent and Christmas Schedule

From Pastor's Desk

First Sunday of Lent -  Cycle B

2/22/2021

 
February 21th, 2021 – First Sunday of Lent -  Cycle B

Readings: Genesis 9: 8-15, Psalm 25 “Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant”, 1 Peter 3: 18-22, Mark 1: 12-15

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are at the beginning of Lent, a time of penance and interior renewal to enable us to prepare for Easter. The Church’s liturgy unceasingly invites us to purify our souls and to begin again. It commemorates the forty  days Jesus spent in the desert in preparation for his years of  preaching, which culminated in the cross and in the triumph of Easter. Forty days of prayer and penance, and at the end of them the temptations of Christ, which this Sunday’s Gospel recalls.
 
The whole episode is a mystery which humans cannot hope to understand: God is here submitting to temptation, letting the evil one have his way. A mystery indeed. But we can meditate upon it, asking our Lord to help us understand the teaching it contains. Jesus allowed this so as to give us an example of humility, and to teach us to overcome temptations that we are going to have to undergo in the course of our lives. Jesus wanted to teach us by his example that no one should consider himself exempt from any type of trail.
 
The Lord allows temptation, and uses it providentially to purify you, to make you holy, to detach you more from the things of earth, to lead you where He is and by the route he wants you to take, so as to make you happy, so as to give you maturity, understanding and effectiveness in your apostolic work with souls, and to make you humble. “Blessed is the man who endures trial, says the Apostle St James, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God promised to those who love him. I wish you a fruitful Lenten season.
Fr. Paschal Chester, svd


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All

  • Home
  • Sundays
  • Sacraments
  • Ministries
  • Español
  • Contact
  • EVENT CALENDAR
  • Advent and Christmas Schedule