mcoleman117@hotmail.co.uk      http://www.maristway.org                 

Dear Friends

2008 has been an interesting year so far. As I forecast in the last Newsletter I had my left knee replaced 28^th December 2007. So far the operation has been successful, but I have appreciated the value of painkillers as I seek to restore mobility to the knee. I was in Lourdes with the Christmas group of pilgrims and was at Toulouse airport at 18.00 on 27^th December. By 09.15 on 28^th December I was back in the ward in the Hull hospital having had my left knee successfully replaced. My departure from hospital was delayed for five days by an infection but I am happy to report good progress since then and I hope to be reasonably mobile by Easter.

Marist life will change later in the year. The Marist Fathers will form a Province of Europe and we, in England, will be the "Region of Great Britain". Voting for a European Provincial is taking place and the official foundation will take place on 1^st June 2008.

THE SEASON OF LENT

Lent is the ‘strongest’ season of the Church’s year. Two sacraments dominate the entire period of five weeks – Baptism and Penance. Lent is therefore a time of re-birth and renewal for the whole Church.

At the very beginning, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are sprinkled on our heads to

remind us of our sinfulness and the need for a true conversion of hearts back to God. This action sets the tone for the remainder of Lent, and many of the prayers, the sombreness of the vestments and the altar decorations serve to remind us of how much we are in need of God’s grace and equally how often we spurn it. Bit the future is not bleak. Many of the prayers of this season see Lenten penance as but the forerunner of Easter joy. Lent would not be Lent without its climax in the victory of the Resurrection. We rid ourselves of the darkness of sin to make way for the light of the risen Christ.

In ancient times Lent was also the last lap in the preparation for the candidates for Baptism. The recent restoration of the liturgy makes this once again a very real possibility. Thus three of the Sundays (3^rd, 4^th 5^th) of Year A employ readings about the power of water and the resurrection to new life. Special Prefaces reflecting these themes add further weight to the baptismal mood. The entire period of preparation reaches its peak at the initiation of the new Christian on Easter night.

Even for those of us who are already Christians Lent has baptismal significance. It reminds us of those life-giving and cleansing waters by which we first met Christ face-to-face. We are therefore spurred on to renew the life of the risen Christ bestowed on us so richly.

MARIST PILGRIMAGES