{"id":2719,"date":"2013-02-03T17:51:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T17:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=2719"},"modified":"2013-02-13T18:10:33","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T18:10:33","slug":"lent1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=2719","title":{"rendered":"Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lent begins on Wednesday 13th February<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/lent\/p1050260\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1090\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1090\" alt=\"P1050260\" src=\"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/P1050260-e1352837437150-225x300.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Ash Wednesday is the clarion call to \u201cRepent and believe the gospel\u201d (Mk 1:15). For the next forty days, the faithful willingly submit to fasting and self-denial in imitation of Our Lord\u2019s forty-day fast in the desert. It is in these dark and still nights, these desert-times, that the soul experiences its greatest growth. There, in the inner arena, the soul battles the world, the flesh and the devil just as Our Lord battled Satan\u2019s triple temptation in the desert. His battle was external, for Jesus could not sin; our battle is interior, but with a hope sustained by the knowledge of Christ\u2019s Easter victory over sin and death.<\/p>\n<p>His victory is our renewal, our \u201cspring\u201d \u2014 which is the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon word,\u00a0<i>\u201clengten\u201d<\/i>or Lent. In this penitential season we have the opportunity to make an annual spiritual \u201ctune-up\u201d, a 40-day retreat with Our Lord. Have we allowed worldly cares and the \u201cdaily drama\u201d to obscure our call to holiness? Have self-love and materialism eroded our relationship with God? Then let us renew our efforts, and through our Lenten observance, discipline the body and master it as we \u201cfollow in the footsteps of the poor and crucified Christ\u201d\u00a0<i>(St. Francis of Assisi).<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Activity Source:\u00a0<i>Original Text (JGM &amp; MG)<\/i>\u00a0by Jennifer Gregory Miller and Margaret Gregory<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicculture.org\/\">http:\/\/www.catholicculture.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lent begins on Wednesday 13th February Ash Wednesday is the clarion call to \u201cRepent and believe the gospel\u201d (Mk 1:15). For the next forty days, the faithful willingly submit to fasting and self-denial in imitation of Our Lord\u2019s forty-day fast &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=2719\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2719"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}