Let's Begin the Journey

To walk the pilgrim way of Lent with Jesus is to confront the often-mysterious darknesses of our own lives and thereby strengthen our capacity, with God's grace, to resist everything in us that impedes us from making our lives into the gift for others that life itself is to each of us. The journey is an arduous one. Its difficulties are eased when we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, who goes before us, and when we ponder the stories of the saints who have walked this path throughout history. At the end of the pilgrim's way is Easter: the power of God vindicates the sacrificial obedience of Jesus by raising him from tthe dead and seating him at the Father's right hand in glory—love proves stronger than death. For, as the Church prays at Holy Mass during the Forty Days, "by your gracious gift each year, your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure. The Lenten ininerary of conversion leads to the "fullness of grace"  that the God of mercies bestows on his sons and daughters at Easter in the New Life that is our life in the Risen Lord."