13 February 2015
Your news from across the Archdiocese of Perth
Edition #18
Archbishop’s 2015 Lent Message By Archbishop Costelloe THE VERY FIRST words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel according to St Mark are, “The time has come and the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15). As we prepare to enter into the journey of Lent this year, we might allow this invitation of Jesus to guide us. He calls us to repent and He calls us to believe. What might this mean for us individually and as members of His Church? What might it mean for us as husbands or wives, as single people, as children or parents, as brothers or sisters, as friends or colleagues, as parishioners, as clergy or religious, as children of God? In a sense, only we can answer these questions. Every one of us, no matter how young or old, is caught up in a variety of relationships. They are unique and personal to each one of us. Hopefully, they bring us joy and make our lives worth living. But relationships of any and every kind can also be complex and can easily go wrong. We are created for love and, as St Paul would remind us, “the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). Yet we are also fragile and often prone to selfishness. We know that “there can be no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s EDITION #18 | 12 FEBRUARY 2015
Archbishop Costelloe receives the offeratory gifts at the 2014 Easter Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. In his 2015 Lenten message, the Archbishop said Lent is a time for us to listen again to the words of Jesus. PHOTO: RON TAN PHOTOGRAPHY
friends” (cf Jn 15:13) but we do not always find it easy to be so self-sacrificing. Lent is a time for us to listen again to the words of Jesus who calls His disciples to “love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12), and who also promises to send
weakness, will become possible for us, for we, like St Paul, “can do all things in Christ who strengthens us” (cf Ph 4:13). This is why I am convinced that, fundamentally, the call to repent, which means to turn around and set out in a new direction, is
This Lent, I invite you all to join with me once again in re-directing our gaze to Jesus, as we commit ourselves to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. us the gift of his Holy Spirit (cf Jn 14:15-16). Through this gift, if we receive it with joy and allow God’s own Spirit to grow in our lives, we will remain united with Christ and what might be impossible for us on our own, because of our
a call to turn again to Jesus. As Catholics, our faith, as both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have reminded us, is first and foremost about an encounter with Jesus and a growing relationship of love with Him. It is from this that every-
thing else flows. The teachings we accept, the values we try to live by, the daily choices we make, and the sometimes difficult demands our faith places before us, will only ever be burdensome and even oppressive unless they are grounded in our encounter with Jesus and the joy which rises from coming to know Him more fully and love Him more deeply. What was previously burdensome then becomes a source of life and hope. This Lent, then, I invite you all to join with me once again in re-directing our gaze to Jesus, as we commit ourselves to the Lenten journey of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Full Text available at
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