From the Principal
LENTEN REFLECTION
The Christian Church is now in the Season of Lent, that season that marks forty days leading up to the feast of Easter. In 2026, Lent began on Ash Wednesday, 18 February and will conclude on Thursday 2 April a day prior to the Easter Triduum.
Lent observations go back hundreds of years. We are called upon to make ourselves ready for the Feast of Easter when Christ who had died and was buried rose from the throes of death and opened the Kingdom of God to all believers. It is the most significant and well celebrated feast on the Church calendar.
In recent decades, three matters have been asked of all Christian observers in Lent. The first is fasting when conditions are placed on all true believers when it comes to the avoidance of eating meat on certain days and calling upon people to be moderate in their eating and drinking habits. Such restrictions are common across many religious traditions. Of special fasting during Lent, meat is not consumed on Ash Wednesday, and at the end of Lent Good Friday is another day for refraining from meat.
Christians are called to prayer during Lent, and such calls are another common feature shared by different religious traditions. It is the responsibility of the individual to pray more frequently, and perhaps differently and with more fervour, during the forty days of Lent. This may include morning and afternoon and night time prayers, reading the Bible more frequently during Lent, undertaking reading religious articles on matters that relate to Easter and the season in general.
Of course, Jesus taught us to pray, beginning with the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven…..”,. So, traditional prayers might be interspersed with personal prayer, prayerful reflection, meditation, and community and personal prayers and asking for intercession.
The third Lenten message is associated with alms giving (giving to the poor). Caring for the poor is central to all religious cultures and traditions. Australians are generous people when it comes to charity and appeals, but during Lent Christians are invited and urged to keep an eye open to the very poor in their community and to not just give alms but give until it begins to hurt our finances. The poor will always be with us, but at Lent they ought to be our focus as we reach out to them, welcome them into our life and community, and care for them in their material needs.
Traditions abound around the Season of Lent, and we know them well and have practised them often. It is matters such as Shrove Tuesday on the eve of Lent, hot cross buns towards its conclusion (and for many folk on every day throughout), Lenten meals with or without meat, purple robes on our priests and pastors, an air of expectancy as Easter draws near, from Day 1 to Day 40.
May Lent not be spent among the human and spiritual ashes of despair but with a sense of making oneself ready for the wondrous Feast of Easter when the Lord is risen, when Alleluia rings out from the Church benches, when the world sits on the cusp of new life as a result of the Resurrection.
In a sentence, may Monicans fast and live their life humbly, pray and persevere as Monicans do, and give to the poor from our richness. In all, Monicans, have FAITH, that Jesus has risen at Easter and the kingdom is open to all who believe.
Mr Brian Hanley OAM
Principal