lenten reflections from the villanova community

"As we begin Lent, we might be tempted to ask, 'What must I do to obtain God's love and mercy?' The true, startling, unbelievable answer is, 'Nothing'. We can do nothing to earn or merit God's love and forgiveness. They are divine gifts that are showered on us without conditions or limits.

Precisely because we realize that we are loved and forgiven through no merit of our own, we can show our gratitude by imitating and testifying to God's love. We strive to reveal God's love and mercy by loving and forgiving as God does. Worship, then, is an act of gratitude, not an online purchase. 

A more Christian question would be: 'What can I do to better reveal God's love and mercy in our world?' Today our faith invites us to hear the cry of the earth and of the poor--to remember that we are dust of the earth and that the earth is our common home. It belongs to and is meant for all. We are called to share with everyone what has been freely given."

Rev. Arthur Purcaro, OSA, Assistant Vice President, Mission and Ministry, Villanova University

https://www1.villanova.edu/content/villanova/mission/_jcr_content/widgetiparsys/download/file.res/Lenten%20Reflections%202020.pdf 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Villanova_Church.jpg (click on this link, then click on the image to zoom in.)

attribution: abbike18 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

      faith 

                 hope 
                             love