LENT 2017

Most of us have an instant personal plan for Lent, consisting of the big three:


1.Prayer, 
2.Fasting
3.Almsgiving.

But the church has an actual plan for Lent based on a plan OF Lent. It would be well worth our while getting to know this plan in much the same as it  is good to see the wood as a whole as well as the individual trees that go to make up the wood.


What would be the point, for instance, of a football manager having a Master Plan to help his team win the game if his players simply concentrated on their individual skills and ignored the manager's master plan? The poor chap would have to face the Cameras after the match and try to explain why his team had crash-landed on the field of play.

The trouble is, as most of us know, parish workers including Parish Priests, often sound and act as if they've never even heard of a plan, being too busy with prayer intentions and rules for fasting and abstinence. But in fact the Church's master plan for Lent is no big secret; it's there for all to see in the way the Sunday Gospel readings are arranged. Watch.

The first two Sundays of every Lent are ALWAYS, the same; the temptations of Jesus, followed by the Transfiguration. 

The next three Sundays vary according to which year of the Liturgical cycle we're in, but again are always the same for that particular cycle.
For instance, this year we are in Cycle A and after the first two Sundays the Gospel readings are (as always in this cycle),
1. The Woman at the Well meets Jesus
2. The cure of the man born blind
3. The Raising of Lazarus
Then, of course comes the Sunday of the Palms (now called Passion Sunday) followed by Holy Week and Easter.  
Simple, clear, easy to follow, yes, but how does it help?

If you find yourself asking that question then for an answer think "vision". A master plan, if it's to be worthy of that name must have a vision. 
Those of you with the R,C.I.A running in your parish will know already where I am heading. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults uses the scripture readings of the Sundays of Lent, especially year A, to receive new converts into the church. And there is the plan for Lent at its clearest. Lent is about receiving new converts into the church AND converting again those already in the church.  
Now, believe it or not, I have a plan in writing these little pieces which is to keep them to around 400 to 500 words. So let's pause there and we'll finish it later, certainly before Lent starts.