We now enter the core of Lent. These three Sundays—the 3rd, 4th and 5th—are about conversion. This is clearest in the readings of Cycle A, which we’ll have again next year. Those gospels are The Woman at the Well, The Man Born Blind, and The Raising of Lazarus: the classic stories of conversion, which we used on our recent retreat. This year’s gospel cycle, from Luke, has its own interesting group of conversion stories: a threat of a civic calamity, the Prodigal Son (and the

LENT moves very quickly. This is the Second Sunday of Lent already; but more than that, the Scriptures today zoom us ahead to Easter. It’s the Church’s wisdom that Lent is not to be a time of gloom, with sacrifices for their own sake in a dark spirit. No, today we’re given a glimpse of why all the Lenten effort: The Glory of Christ! which we are meant to share in. It happened to the disciples, as they walked with Jesus on an ordinary day, and then saw Him in the glory of His

Lent should be at least a little bit of a struggle. There’s nothing inherently valuable about suffering. But when done intentionally, to become something else, some amount of discomfort or unease will occur. What makes the struggle valuable is what we become. That’s Lent. In fact, the word “Lent” is an old English word for Springtime. Because it’s the time when the sun, the winds, even the moon, work together to warm the earth and bring out life. At the school Mass on Ash Wed