The Word–Fr Tony Percy–Catapulting Event (Fr Tony Percy says that in this Gospel passage St. Mark tells us quite remarkably that Jesus is thrown by using a very specific Greek word, Jesus was thrown into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tested or tempted by Satan, which means accuser, Satan is the accuser. Jesus lived there with the wild beasts and the angels for 40 days and 40 nights, which evokes, of course, that biblical imagery of 40 days or rather long periods, very prominent in the Old Testament. It doesn't matter who you are. We have this experience in life of being uprooted, from our normal existence, of being dislocated, disrupted. We're almost catapulted, I call it a catapulting event, catapulted into a form of suffering, something that we would not necessarily choose. And this of course happens to Jesus. He's a human being. He's a divine person but he has a totally human nature, and he has this experience of being disrupted. When this happens, as it will inevitably happen to each one of us, what do we do when we are catapulted into the wilderness in whatever form it may be. It may be in body, it may be in soul, it may be in spirit, perhaps having difficulties in your thinking and memory, and or you're having difficulties with your spiritual life, or bodily you're feeling you've been sort of catapulted into a form of ill health. What do we do? Well, remember, the very previous preceding event in the Gospel of Mark is the baptism of Jesus when he hears the voice of the Father say, “you are my beloved son, with you I'm well pleased.” So, Jesus, in His humanity, had an extraordinary experience of the Father's love. And that's what we want to cope with these catapulting events being driven out into wildernesses and deserts. We need to not only know that we are loved, but we need to feel it. And so, let's open ourselves to this. If there's one thing that we should do in the 40 -day period is just to find a little bit of time to pray, a little bit of stillness, to receive this love from the Father, to hear God say to us, "You are my beloved daughter. You are my beloved son." And then we can cope with anything.)

Pietà Lenten Series–Darren McDowell–Holiness in Action (Darren McDowell says Lent challenges us in our attitude towards holiness. The readings for Monday of the 1st week of Lent encourage us to go higher than just prayer, devotions, communal worship that are essentially our inner life. These practices are important. However, our readings today clearly point to another aspect of holiness—our movement into action. Indeed, the holiness of life in love of others is equated with God’s holiness. The Leviticus reading describes this holiness as the just and loving ways we treat our brothers and sisters, giving them justice and love. In the Gospel for Monday, Jesus shares a parable about the final judgement, teaching us that when we show love to the poor, lonely, homeless, marginalised, and captive, we are showing love to him. In doing so, we reflect the holiness of God. The mystery of God is that he continually moves out in love, caring for each one of us and the whole of creation. It is this mystery which we journey towards celebrating at Easter.)

Gospel Reflection–Sr Katherine Stone MGL–Wilderness and Wild Beasts (Sr Katherine Stone says that the 40 days of Lent can seem like a long, bleak stretch of time. It makes us wonder why the Spirit would take Jesus out to spend 40 days in the wilderness. The wilderness (or desert) has traditionally been a place of encounter with God. For millennia, men and women of prayer have taken themselves into the desert to be rid of all distraction and encounter the living God. Each Lent, we, too, follow the Holy Spirit into our own experience of “wilderness”. However, in the wilderness we’re prey to temptation, which is ultimately trying to get us to settle for less than what we had set out for. While in the wilderness, like Jesus, we too discover the wild beasts. They’re living in us all of the time, but they tend to behave in a more civilized manner when we feed them with regular coffee and take the edge off their appetites with alcohol or Netflix. But without those distractions, we see more of our inner wild beasts in their natural ferocity: our laziness, impatience, quick temper. It is only when we let go of our distractions and face our weaknesses and struggles that we can experience God’s compassion. Rather than giving all our attention to our temptations and the wild beasts inside, let’s choose to recognise where we have encountered God’s saving compassion.)

On The Journey This Week: We begin our Lenten reflection series with Sr Katherine Stone MGL. This week Sr Katherine says Lent leads us into the wilderness to face the wild beasts of our life. Mother Hilda tells the story of Archbishop Thuc of Saigon and how he handled humiliation. Fr Tony Percy that like Jesus in the Gospel, we too experience catapulting events. Darren McDowell and Sr Mary Helen Hill give their Lenten reflections from our Pietà series

The Word–Fr Tony Percy–Blood Healing (Fr Tony Percy says in this healing we really are brought into the mystery of Christ’s blood. Mark is trying to help us to see the tremendous connection between all of Christ's words and actions and the Pascal Mystery, that is, Christ suffering and death and resurrection and ascension. So, the healing of the lepper, to my mind, has three very important levels to this miracle. The first level is the leprosy in and of itself. It leads to a deep sense of isolation that the only way to contain the disease was to isolate people, the social dislocation and people feeling terribly cut off from community. On the second level Mark says Jesus could no longer go openly into any town but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. This is in and through his own actions of healing leprosy, you can begin to get a sense of the foretaste of the exclusion of Christ and the rejection of Christ. The third level comes when the leper is told by Jesus to show himself to a priest and to offer the prescribed sacrifice for the cleansing which is given to us in Leviticus 14. Mary Healy, a very fine biblical scholar says; if the cleansed leper had in fact complied with Jesus's word, that is, to go and offer the sacrifice, he might have discovered a symbolic image foreshadowing Jesus's own sacrifice. Two birds are taken, one was sacrificed and then the blood of that sacrificed bird is poured all over the other bird who flies away with blood on his wings as a symbol of freedom, set free by the blood of the other. And so yes, he may well have intuited, my goodness, I've been set free by the blood of Christ. It's a good reminder we just stop then and think that all healing, all of the healing that we will have in spirit, soul and body, all of it comes from the blood of Christ.)

Wisdom from the Abbey–Mother Hilda–The Word of God (Mother Hilda remembers the time around the death of their former Abbess, Mother Abbess Benedicta Philips OSB, who died on 24 August 2006. Mother Hilda remembers how God responded to her prayer at that time through his Word, preparing her for the events about to unfold in the abbey and her own life. She randomly opened the scriptures and it fell open at the words “prepare yourself for an ordeal.” Mother Hilda goes on to declare how those words and the Word of God has consoled her, given direction, confirmed and guided her decisions and expressed how much she is loved by God. The Word of God will do the same for each of us now in both our difficult and joy-filled times. God is always present in his Word and he always speaks to our heart to whatever our circumstances are each day. Will you let him chat to you today?)

Pietà Lenten Series–Fr Sean Cullen–Discipleship (Fr Sean Cullen says that in the Gospel for Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells us the criteria he is seeking for being a disciple. The first thing a follower must do is deny self. It simply means that we get ourselves out of the centre. We must acknowledge that we are not the hub of the universe. No one can lead a selfish life and be a follower of Jesus at the same time. Next, we must take up our cross every day. In his own life, the cross was an unpleasant experience, but more than that, it was a symbol of his commitment to the Father. He was living life according to the will of God, and nothing could deter him from that, not even a cross. These are the conditions of discipleship. Get self out of the centre and put God there, and then follow in Jesus’ steps.)

Pietà Lenten Series–Fr Chris Sarkis–My Tip for Lent (We all know that the purpose of Lent is to prepare our heart, mind, and soul to enter more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of our redemption by the sacred Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. However, this is easier said than done, so I have a simple and concrete suggestion for you that may help. It will require a commitment of time each day of perhaps 15–20 minutes. Choose a Gospel (I suggest Mark as we hear mainly from him this year in our Sunday Gospels), and each day read half a chapter. You will get through it over Lent. Choose a time and place where you can be alone without being disturbed. It can be in a church, at home, a garden, or any place that is quiet. Spend a minute or two recollecting yourself, then slowly read half a chapter. Don’t think too much about it, just read it slowly and let it sink in. Then, sit for the rest of the time in still and quiet prayer, allowing God to speak to you. Give it time. He will, but in his time, not yours. But be warned: if you take this seriously and follow it through, you won’t be the same as when you started. Taking God seriously has that effect.)

Gospel Reflection–Fr Mark De Battista–The Kingdom Cannot Be Enclosed (Fr Mark De Battista says that in this Gospel the lepper realises it's totally up to Jesus and he is humbling himself in order that Jesus would be moved. And the response, of course from Christ is that he is moved. Jesus heals him, but then he goes and tells him to not tell anyone. This part seems a bit curious. Jesus does this many times, not only in the gospel of Mark, but in other gospels as well. Jesus’ secret couldn't be kept a secret for very long because the Kingdom of God cannot be shut down, even though we're told in today's gospel that Jesus couldn't go openly, people still came to him because the Kingdom of God cannot be enclosed. So, wherever your wound may be, I invite you today to trust yourself to Jesus. Ask him if you want to you can cure me and ask with humility of heart and see what he says to you.)

On The Journey This Week: Fr Mark De Battista says we’re invited to trust ourselves to Jesus, ask him; if you want to you can cure me and see what he says to you. Mother Hilda tells how the Word of God always speaks to us in all our circumstances. Plus, Fr Tony Percy says that all the healing that we will have in spirit, soul and body, all of it comes from the blood of Christ. We’ve got two lead-in reflections for the commencement of Lent from Fr Sean Cullen on discipleship and Fr Chris Sarkis giving his tip on how to have a highly successful and satisfying Lenten period.