Third Sunday of Lent - 2026

Ancestrally, Samaritans claim to be descent from the tribe of Ephraim and tribe of Manasseh (two sons of Joseph, O.T.) as well as from the Levites. They occupied the region of Israel between Judea in the south and Galilee to the north. Some Religious their beliefs: That there is one God, YHWH, the same God recognized by the Hebrew prophets. That the Torah, the Law, was given by God to Moses. That Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the one true sanctuary chosen by Israel’s God to worship Him. Samaritans were considered unclean heretics by the Jews whom they despised even more than they despised Gentiles. Now the Samaritan woman’s life is a total mess and by engaging with her Jesus is breaking all the conventional norms of shunning the Jews practiced toward Samaritans. The woman is totally surprised by Jesus’ willingness to engage with her and his disciples where dumbfounded when they saw him doing so. But Jesus tells them that he has come not to perpetuate division but to unite all peoples by taking them to a higher state of religious belief and practice. “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” This proclamation by Jesus is no less relevant for us to hear today than for these in today’s gospel. True religion, true worship comes down from God – it is God acting on the believer – it is a work of the Spirit. The worshipper cooperates by seeking after this outpouring of God’s grace. We create rituals around this “sacred act” of the Spirit. They are intended to help us to recognize and cooperate with the Spirit acting in us. We must never forget that it is not the rituals that make worship true, it is our humble surrender to the action of the Spirit working within us that makes our worship true and fruitful. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that it is not the mountain that makes worship true. During lent we are asked to examine the quality of our worship. Just showing up in church on Sunday is not enough. Merely reciting prayer formulas by rote while our mind is way off shopping is not true prayer. Rituals play an important part, and when they are performed with reverence and devotion, they serve to help us rise up into God’s grace acting upon us. Let us always come to worship with such disposition of mind and heart.

Second Sunday of Lent - 2026

The Second Sunday presents us with the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The word transfiguration comes from a Greek word from which we get the word metamorphosis, meaning a radical change. An example that illustrates this well is the butterfly. It begins as worm like leaf eater, then after a time wrapped in a cocoon it emerges as a beautiful butterfly able fly. So here Jesus appearance is being radically transfigured, radically transformed. And as this happens Peter, James, and John can see Jesus’ divine glory. Remember Matthew gospel was first written to first century Jews. When they heard these details of the transfiguration, they would immediately make the connection with Moses on Mount Sinai. Some of these connections with the Transfiguration of Jesus and Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai are: * Moses goes up the mountain taking three companions – Jesus take with him Peter, James and john. * When Moses went up the mountain of Sinai, it says that “when he came down his face shone with the glory of having been in the presence of God,” * When Jesus goes up the mountain, his face is transfigured and it shines like the sun with its own light - similar to Moses but is greater than Moses, because he's being revealed as the divine son of God. * In the Moses experience a cloud descends upon him; it says that “God spoke to Moses from the cloud.”   * In the Transfiguration of Jesus the voice of the Father speaks from the cloud and says the words, “this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” So, for the first century Jews they would see in the Transfiguration the revelation of one who is even greater than Moses. Jesus is acting like a new Moses, but he's a new and greater Moses, and he's bringing the disciples up that mountain to encounter God, to enter into the mystery of God and to also reveal to them his divine Sonship. What is the meaning of the Transfiguration for us today? As for Peter, James and John Jesus is preparing them for the scandal of the Cross. When they and the other disciples see Jesus’ passion and death their faith will suffer a crushing blow. So for us we also see in the Transfiguration the glory and power of God revealing Jesus as our Lord and Saviour – for  we too must face the crushing blows that our own trials will bring against our faith – faith that for some will be lost. This is why Lent is such an important time because it is during Lent that through prayer and meditation, we seal in one unbreakable bond the glorious Transfiguration with the passion of Jesus. So that we can face our trials with the vision of the victorious Christ - so seared into our memory that no suffering we face will ever separate us from our confident trust in the Lord. May I recommend that this be the way for you pray and meditate this Lent. As you look up at the Crucified Jesus, see also the vision of the glorious risen Christ.

.

First Sunday of Lent - 2026

Some reflections for prayer on the First Sunday of Lent Gospel for the First Sunday Lent invites us to go with Jesus into the wilderness – not literally, rather into the wilderness of or our own minds & hearts. Like Jesus, we want our own integrity to be tested, to examine the true quality of our faith. What kind of believer am I? So, let us look at the three tests to which Jesus was subjected by the devil, which are the same tests we too must face this Lent. The first test: integrity, security of our lives, "my bread of life". It is said that we are living in the Age of Individualism – the “Me First Generation", the “What-ever-makes-you-happy” generation. That is “my truth”, and it’s my right to have what I need and want to make me happy. Jesus’ response: Truth comes from God the creator. The true goal of every life is to discover and pursue God’s plan for my existence. The question I must ask myself is what truth is shaping my life? What is my daily bread I seek and desire each day? The second test: proof; seeing is believing.  We are also called the Scientific Age. Sound reason demands proof. If religion is true, where is the proof? If God is, and God is love, why so much suffering in the world? Jesus’ response: believing is seeing. No human mind can capture the essence of God – but God will reveal himself to those who open their minds and hearts. Ask yourself, is the secularism of today eroding my faith? The third test: power & possession – “to the victor goes the spoils”.  We are also called the Age of Success. My life is measured by all my successes and the power that I must have to control them. Jesus’ response = wealth & power last but a few years – then death comes to everyone. It is said of our age that the rich are getting richer; poverty in the world is growing. But where is this leading us? History has some worrisome suggestions. Ask yourself: life is short, eternity is forever; where do I wish to end up?

.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at and desirable for gaining wisdom Pride of the flesh (appetites) Pride of the eye (possessions) Pride of life (control) “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.” ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ “Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

.

"The first temptation is the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread.  Well why does he do that and is that a real temptation?" >>> LINK <<<

Ash Wednesday 2026

Ash Wednesday - A History                                         Written by Doug Archer, Catholic Register  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the period of penance, prayer and sacrifice that precedes the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.  Since the earliest days of the church there is evidence of some form of Lenten preparation for Easter; but the duration and nature of this preparation took countless centuries to evolve and is still changing even today.   As early as the second century, St. Irenaeus, an influential bishop and missionary, wrote to Pope Victor I complaining of controversy around the dating of Easter and the observance of a period of fasting leading up to this feast day. Some regional churches fasted for one day, others for several days and still others for 40 hours (most likely based on the traditional belief that Christ lay for 40 hours in the tomb). It was another two centuries before the Council of Nicea tackled St. Irenaeus’ issues head-on. Assembled by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325, bishops at Nicea developed a complex formula that placed the date for Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring. The canons emerging from that council also referenced a 40-day Lenten season of fasting.  The word Lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words, lencten, meaning “spring,” and lenctentid, which was the word for “March,” the month in which the major part of this season of sacrifice falls.  Why the period of 40 days was chosen is not entirely understood, but scholars believe it was influenced by biblical references to 40-day fasts by Moses on Mount Sinai and by Christ in the desert before He began His public ministry. Nonetheless, by the time of Pope Gregory the Great in the last decade of the sixth century, Christians in Rome and the West were generally observing six weeks of fasting prior to Easter. But the math wasn’t quite right. Given that no fasting was to occur on Sundays — as Sunday was viewed as a weekly memorial of the Resurrection and therefore a day of celebration, not fasting — six weeks of fasting added up to 36 days, not 40. To correct this, Pope Gregory moved the start of Lent to a Wednesday. Gregory is also credited with initiating the practice that gave the first day of Lent its name, Day of Ashes or simply, Ash Wednesday. To begin the season of fasting and repentance, Gregory marked the foreheads of his congregation with ashes, a biblical symbol for penance. It was also a reminder to early Christians of their mortality (“For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” Genesis 3:19) and the need to prepare for the afterlife. A millennium and a half after Pope Gregory, the duration of the Lenten observance is still not immediately clear to many Catholics. Confusion stems from the fact that liturgically, Lent lasts 44 days.  The traditional 40-day Lenten fast begins on Ash Wednesday, excludes Sundays and carries through to the night before Easter. But the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969, established slightly different parametres for the season of Lent.  Returning to a long-held custom within the church, the Second Vatican Council re-established the three days before Easter as a separate holy time apart from Lent proper. Known as the Easter or Sacred Triduum, this three-day period begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday and concludes at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, which is when the Easter season begins. So, from a liturgical perspective, Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends just before the Mass on Holy Thursday, the start of the Sacred Triduum. And it includes Sundays, making it 44 days in duration. The nature of the Lenten observance has changed significantly over the millennia. While fasting seems always to have been part of the paschal preparation, there was significant latitude around abstention in the early centuries of the church. Some Christians fasted every day during Lent; others, every other week only. The more austere fasters subsisted on one or two meals a week; but many found that cutting back to one repast a day was a sufficient sacrifice. And while many abstained from meat and wine, some ate nothing but dry bread.  Pope Gregory weighed in on this issue as well. He established the Lenten rule that Christians were to abstain from meat and all things that come from “flesh” such as milk, fat and eggs. And fasting meant one meal a day, normally taken in the mid-afternoon. The prohibition around milk and eggs gave rise to the tradition of Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday), which is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday. On this day Christians would feast on the foods they were required to abstain from during Lent — gorging before the fast as it were — and pancakes became a popular meal for using up all the eggs and milk.  Over time, concessions were made to the rules around fasting. In the 12th and 13th centuries, church authorities such as St. Thomas Aquinas accepted that a certain amount of “snacking,” in addition to one meal a day, should be allowed, particularly for those employed in manual labour. Eating fish was eventually allowed and even the consumption of meat and dairy products as long as a pious act was performed to compensate for the indulgence.  Today the Catholic Code of Canon Law requires those 18 to 59 years of age to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. And fasting means partaking of only one full meal, with snacks or smaller meals allowed at two other times through the day. It is also recommended that those 14 and over abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent. Lent is not just about fasting, however. Prayer, almsgiving and works of charity have always been encouraged by the church. And walking the Stations of the Cross (also called the Way of the Cross or Via Crucis) is a Lenten devotion that dates back to the fourth century. Pilgrims to Jerusalem would retrace the steps that Christ walked on His way to Calvary, stopping at specific points to pray. When the Crusades in the Middle Ages prevented such sacred journeys to the Holy Land, the Via Crucis was reproduced in different parts of Europe. Chapels and markers (first referred to as Stations of the Cross around 1460) decorated with scenes of the Passion were erected in monasteries and in numerous cities to allow for miniature pilgrimages. Now images of the Stations of the Cross appear in almost all Catholic churches and are an integral part of many Lenten worship services. The traditions and practices surrounding Lent are varied, but they have a common focus:  preparation for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. Some would argue that at the start of this new Lenten season, that should be the focus of every Catholic.