Second Sunday of Lent

“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”

In Lent, it is good to give up things – not just foods and drinks but things like losing your temper, getting angry. Not always easy – as I found out when spending over two hours on Friday sorting out my blocked account at a neurotic bank which has suffered all too many scams.

It is also good to take up things like reading the Gospels and, on Fridays, praying the Stations of the Cross. (I have left a number of texts of St Alphonsus Liguori’s stations on the table by the entrance door. You can do those at home and take on the role of the priest and reader as you sit quietly alone, or with members of your family.)

Why not spend a few minutes reading a scene in the Gospels; imagining how Jesus’s face would have looked when, for example, (as we read in Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26) those  four men carrying their paralyzed friend  to re-open the roof of a house in Capernaum in which Jesus was speaking, lowered the man towards Jesus. 

Would Jesus, having to step aside from the centre of the room as bits plaster fell, said – in Aramaic - something like Wow!" and "Oh!" or even “What  a surprise!" before, seeing their faith, He forgave the man's sins and healed him.

Using your imagination, bring the gospels into life. When you do that, in my experience, it is easier to stir up  love of  the real man Jesus Christ more deeply.