LENT 2023

The Season of Lent is a journey to the celebration of Easter. Like all journeys, it can have its moments of difficulty and discomfort. We keep going because we hope to arrive at a destination better than the place where we started.

Pope Francis has drawn a comparison between the Lenten journey and the synodal journey that he has called the Church to follow. My own recent Pastoral Letter to you reflecting on the synodal path for our local church was entitled “Are We There Yet?” This was to acknowledge the weariness and the temptation to lose hope that a people on pilgrimage can experience.

We need the gift of patience from God, who is always patient with us, even when we grow impatient with him. We also pray for patience with one another, which St Augustine called the sacrifice of being Christian.

The individual and communal paths of conversion must intertwine during Lent if our journey is to arrive at the destination where God awaits. Let us never forget that we are travelling together; and that every day presents opportunities for simple, practical acts of love and forgiveness that can be our gift to one another.

+Michael McKenna

Bishop of Bathurst