Pastoral Letter - Lent 2008 |
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My dear people of the Diocese of Rockhampton Life is a pilgrimage for each one of us. It begins at birth and will conclude with our dying. A pilgrimage is characterised by uncertainty, but also by trust or commitment to a goal. We are all on such a pilgrimage, our trust is in God and our final destiny is heaven. I would like to invite you to focus on your pilgrimage during the coming to me of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Our Lenten Program has been prepared. It is titled “Pilgrim People, Journeying with God, Journeying Together”. It is intended to help us focus on a short part of our pilgrimage, the six weeks leading to the great feast of Easter. I invite you to take a copy of the Lenten program with you this weekend and if possible, to gather each week with a small group to work through the weekly Gospel, stories of people like yourselves and discussions about your pilgrimage of faith. If you cannot be part of a group, then I ask you to work through each eek s a family, or on your own. Above all, it is a time for you to meet God in new ways and we call that ‘prayer’. It is a time to meet Jesus in the weekly Gospel as Jesus reveals God to us. It is also a time to share our faith with each other and to find ways to reach out to God’s people who are all around us. I am sure that if you take up this program, it will make a difference, for God will draw you closer. As this new year unfolds, I ask you to keep in mind the World Youth Day in July, celebrated in Sydney and celebrated in every parish and school community throughout Australia. Many of our young people will make the pilgrimage to Sydney and I know they will have the love and support of the whole Diocese. Lets not forget the traditional practices of Lent – more time for prayer, a special effort at self denial and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I ask you to support Project Compassion generously as you always do and keep your heart on those people who suffer so much deprivation. In mentioning prayer, I ask you to continue midday prayer wherever you are, our Diocesan Prayer for Evangelisation or a prayer of your choice. At the time of the Mass of the Oils, I will offer an alternative prayer which will focus on another aspect of Evangelisation, namely Stewardship, using our gifts for others. May God bless your pilgrimage this Lent and all of us – people, religious, priests and myself, as bishop, may we find new closeness with our God and draw nearer to Him as our companion on the journey. Yours sincerely Lent 2008
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