Shared in the diocesan e-newsletter, Thursday 19 February

We began the season of Lent earlier this week with Ash Wednesday. As the priest marked our foreheads with blessed ashes, he may have said, ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ The whole liturgical life of the Church takes a sudden penitential turn. There are prayers asking for the grace to persevere in our spiritual warfare. The First Sunday of Lent presents us with the familiar account of the Temptations of Jesus, causing us to reflect on how we might overcome our own temptations to sin and vice.

The sombre and dour beginning of this sacred season is contrasted by the Rite of Election, which takes place at St Chad's Cathedral this Sunday afternoon. The Archbishop will call those men and women who are to be baptised at the Easter Vigil or to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church to be numbered among the elect. That is, they will be called to prepare diligently, called to the fullness of faith, called to the saving sacraments of the Church. 
 
The Rite of Election is a moment of personal joy for those preparing to enter the Church. It is also moment of ecclesial joy that prompts us to renew our own life of faith. The seriousness of Lent and our own mortality is refocussed by this celebration. It turns our gaze to the joy of believing and the joy that comes from life in Christ. As the number of Catholics across the Archdiocese swells, so our hearts this Lent are called to grow in love with the Lord who saves us.

Fr Michael Glover
St Mary's College, Oscott

Photograph taken at the 2025 Rite of Election

The Sunday Gospels of Lent

Resources for Lent and Easter

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