First Sunday of Lent
With the wearing of purple and the absence of Alleluias and the Gloria there is a change of mood within the church’s liturgy as we begin the season of Lent. The Gospel for this First Sunday recounts Jesus’ journey into the wilderness for 40 days and the temptations he overcame. We too journey over these next forty days seeking strength and mercy from The Lord to overcome all that impedes us from loving and following him.
The season of Lent originally developed in the early centuries as a final period of preparation for catechumens before their reception into the church at Easter as well as being a final period of penance for those who had apostasized (abandoned their faith) in the face of persecution. The whole church community joined them in fasting and penance in preparation for the celebrations of Holy Week. This Sunday afternoon at 3pm Archbishop Sherrington will lead a service of welcome to admit adults who have been preparing to be received into the church from many of the parishes across the Diocese. There are several candidates from our Cathedral parish who have been preparing since October who will be taking part in this service and who will be baptised or received into full communion at the Easter Vigil.
On Sunday afternoons for the next Sundays of Lent our choirs will be singing a selection of Lenten devotional pieces in place of Choral Evening Prayer. Next week at 3pm the choir will sing the passion section of Handel’s Messiah. There will also be Stations of the Cross every Friday following 12.15pm Mass and an additional period of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament following the Saturday morning Mass from 9.30-10.30am.
We are too small to have a lost property department but over the years the various items that have been left behind in our building tell a fascinating story. Hats, brollies and gloves and foreign currencies are pretty standard fayre and in the past considerable quantities of small cameras but it is the strange unusual items that raise questions and are most puzzling. Some years ago we were concerned that a visitor had left the Cathedral barefoot having left a pair of shoes and socks here. Leaving the occasional walking stick is an error soon remedied but we have had someone leave crutches here with no indication of a miracle taking place. Someone once left an envelope with a cheque for a considerable amount of money made out to the Dean of the Cathedral but unfortunately it was unsigned. We were most concerned when a spaniel dog was left tied to a pillar in the car park without any identification. The owner returned after a few days and was rather unapologetic to the member of staff that had looked after the animal for that time and taken it home of an evening. So what caused all this going back over old memories? It was the discovery of the first hot water bottle left behind under a bench at the end of the evening. In future years it will be a memory of the time when we lived through a winter in the Cathedral when the boilers failed and some parishioners resorted to imaginative ways to keep warm during services.
Monsignor Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
