This Lent Lay Your Burdens Down …. On the Mountain of God’s Mercy.

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy we invite each parishioner to make lent a time to welcome once more the mercy of God into your life.

We all carry our own burdens – perhaps the burden of illness, of breakdown in relationships, of economic stress, the burden of our own sinful actions …. Our faith tells us that we don’t have to carry these burdens alone, God walks each step with us in mercy and love.

This Lent a base stone has been placed in a specially prepared space in our Church, together with smaller stones. In your own time during this holy season we invite you to take a stone from this space and carry it with you for a while – a day, a week …. As you do so, pray and reflect on where in your life you are in need of God’s mercy. Whenever you are ready, return the stone into the Lenten space in the Church, as a sign that you are ready to welcome God’s mercy into your life and that you are willing to share this mercy with others.

You may well find yourself taking more than one stone in the season. Over the weeks of Lent may the growing mountains of stones remind us of the steadfastness of God’s mercy and love. As Pope Francis says to us “Let us be renewed by God’s Mercy, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too”. As a sign of this shared Lenten journey, a base stone from each parish will be brought to the Chrism mass in the Cathedral on Monday March 21st at 7.30p.m.