{"id":4156,"date":"2019-03-04T15:54:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T15:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4156"},"modified":"2019-03-04T15:55:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T15:55:25","slug":"the-message-for-lent-pope-francis-the-desert-of-creation-to-make-it-once-more-a-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/03\/04\/the-message-for-lent-pope-francis-the-desert-of-creation-to-make-it-once-more-a-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"The Message for Lent: Pope Francis: \u201cthe desert of creation\u201d to make it \u201conce more a garden.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe path to Easter demands that we renew our faces and hearts as Christians through repentance, conversion and forgiveness, so as to live fully the abundant grace of the paschal mystery\u201d. Pope Francis wrote this in the final part of his message for Lent, noting that this \u201clonging\u201d, this \u201cexpectation\u201d of creation, \u201cwill be fulfilled in the revelation of the children of God, that is, when Christians and all people enter decisively into the \u2018travail\u2019 that conversion entails\u201d.
\n<\/em>
\n\u201cAll creation is called, with us, to go forth \u2018from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God\u2019\u201d,<\/em> Pope Francis wrote, citing the Letter to the Romans: \u201cLent is a sacramental sign of this conversion. It invites Christians to embody the paschal mystery more deeply and concretely in their personal, family and social lives, above all by fasting, prayer and almsgiving\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFasting\u201d,<\/em> that is, \u201clearning to change our attitude towards others and all of creation\u201d,<\/em> Pope Francis explained: \u201cTurning away from the temptation to \u2018devour\u2019 everything to satisfy our voracity and being ready to suffer for love, which can fill the emptiness of our hearts. Prayer, which teaches us to abandon idolatry and the self-sufficiency of our ego, and to acknowledge our need of the Lord and his mercy. Almsgiving, whereby we escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us. And thus to rediscover the joy of God\u2019s plan for creation and for each of us, which is to love him, our brothers and sisters, and the entire world, and to find in this love our true happiness\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Entering \u201cthe desert of creation\u201d<\/em> to make \u201cit once more that garden of communion with God that it was before original sin\u201d:<\/em> this is what Pope Francis invites us to do this Lent, to \u201cjourney along\u201d<\/em> the same path Jesus walked, \u201cbringing the hope of Christ also to creation\u201d. \u201cLet us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain!\u201d<\/em>, the Pontiff exhorted in the final part of his speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus\u2019 Pasch; let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ\u2019s victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe path to Easter demands that we renew our faces and hearts as Christians through repentance, conversion and forgiveness, so as to live fully the abundant grace of the paschal mystery\u201d. Pope Francis wrote this in the final part of his message for Lent, noting that this \u201clonging\u201d, this \u201cexpectation\u201d of creation, \u201cwill be fulfilled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}