First Sunday of Lent 2010

20 February 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Some of you may have seen on the diocesan website a photograph of Pope Benedict and myself in which I am pointing out to the Holy Father the size of our diocese.    I was telling the Pope that our diocese is a mixture of urban and rural areas with a growing population, where we are welcoming an increasing number of Catholics from other countries, who are enriching the life of our parishes and contributing to the wellbeing of the wider community.

When the Pope spoke to all the Bishops of England and Wales at the end of our Ad Limina visit he said: “Your visit to Rome strengthens the bonds of communion between the catholic community in your own country and the Apostolic See, a communion that sustained your peoples faith for centuries and today provides fresh energy for renewal and evangelisation.”

In our diocesan pastoral guidelines – Called to be a People of Hope – we saw how our understanding of being in communion with God, the Church, one another, our wider society and with the whole of creation is fundamental to our Catholic faith.  Indeed the mission of the Church is to build communion, imitating Jesus who in his life, death and resurrection reconciled all things to himself and made all things new.

Lent is a time to renew our understanding of communion and to deepen our relationships of love with God and our neighbour, remembering that our neighbour is the whole of humanity.  In a sense we are also neighbour to all living creatures and to the whole environment in which we live our lives.  When St Paul calls us to be reconciled to God, that has an effect on the way we relate to people and the world.  In that renewal of our relationships we will be more truly ambassadors for Christ.

Yesterday morning in the Cathedral we celebrated the Rite of Election when we officially welcomed the Catechumens who are to be baptised at the Easter Vigil in our parishes and also the Candidates who are to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church.  We promised them our prayers and support as they journey through Lent to Holy Week and Easter.

But all of us are on that journey through Lent to unite ourselves with Jesus in his death and resurrection.  The journey is signposted by prayer, fasting and alms giving.  We are called to be generous in all three areas.

Please give time for prayer and make Lent a time of self denial so that we may be free from the slavery of consumerism and grow in sensitivity to the needs of others, especially the poor and the forgotten members of society.  By observing these Lenten activities we will be faithful to the Gospel and we will strengthen our bonds of communion with God, the Church, our brothers and sisters and the whole creation.

May God strengthen you in your resolve.
With my best wishes

Bishop of Clifton

To be read and / or made available in all Churches and Chapels in the Clifton Diocese on the First Sunday of Lent 20 and 21 February 2010.

You can listen to Bishop Declan read you his pastoral letter in the multimedia panel on the right.

You can watch Bishop Declan in the Cathedral read you his pastoral letter in the cliftondiocese.com cliplayer below.  The video below is for online viewing and is compressed in Flash format.  You can download the video in QuickTime format in the multimedia panel on the right.