WelCom March 2021
Lent is a time to reconsider the path one is taking in life and to finally answer God’s invitation to return to him with one’s whole heart, says Pope Francis.
Speaking in a homily at the Vatican on Ash Wednesday, 17 February 2021, the Pope said Lent was ‘about discerning where our hearts are directed – toward God or toward myself?’.
‘Lent is a journey of return to God. It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends,’ he said.
‘The journey of Lent is an exodus from slavery to freedom,’ he said, noting the easy temptations along that journey, including yearning for the past, or hindered by ‘unhealthy attachments, held back by the seductive snares of our sins, by the false security of money and appearances, by the paralysis of our discontents. To embark on this journey, we have to unmask these illusions.’
‘Pope at Ash Wednesday Mass: ‘Lent is a journey of return to God’
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-02/pope-francis-ash-wednesday-mass-lent-return-god.html
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis, St Peter’s Basilica, Ash Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 8 December
‘As has been the custom for many years an archdiocesan Mass will be celebrated on our diocesan feast day, 7pm, Thursday 8 December, at St Teresa’s Pro-Cathedral, Karori. The archdiocese will again be entrusted to the care of Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception at this Mass. Parishes are asked to renew that Consecration on the following Sunday, 11 December, at All parish Masses.’ – Cardinal John Dew
Dates and events – what’s on
December 2022
If you would like your event listed on this page, please send an outline to welcom@wn.catholic.org.nz including name of event, date, time, location and contact.
Pope Francis registers for the next World Youth Day in Lisbon
At the conclusion of the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis registered for the next World Youth Day to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in August 2023. Assisted and accompanied by Portuguese university students studying in Rome, the Pope tapped his way to becoming the first officially registered pilgrim for World Youth Day.