Dear friends,

This Sunday, at 3pm at the Cathedral, the Rite of Election is celebrated. This is an important step for those preparing to be initiated at the Easter Vigil. For those preparing to be baptised, Reimen Hii, Joe Ashby-Cliffe, Taylah and Stephanie Moody will be welcomed as members of the Elect. This means that they, along with at least two hundred others across the diocese, are moving into their final stage of preparation. Also we acknowledge, Brooke Daniels and Makarla Wheate, who are baptised in other Christian traditions and who will be received into the Catholic tradition at the Easter Vigil. Please continue to pray for them all as they journey with us throughout Lent. They are a sign to us of the vitality of the Church and the rich calling of faith. May we be a sign to them of the joy, friendship and consolation which comes from being a follower of Christ.

I invite you to give some consideration to the various opportunities and ministries of service within the parish community. In particular, we are in need of extraordinary ministers of Communion, both for our Sunday Masses and also to take Communion to those who are sick and housebound. Training will be given, and you will be able to request to be rostered on the Masses and Sundays which suit your circumstances. Lent is the perfect opportunity to commitment ourselves in service to one another and the boarder community. Please give some thought to this and speak to me or contact the parish office for further information.

The gospel takes us into familiar territory this weekend. Today we are brought into graphic struggles with temptation. The problem with temptations is that they are so tempting. We are not tempted so much by fantasy but rather by choices that appear to be genuine alternatives. Temptations are a catalogue of credible options; possibilities, that on the face of things, seem to contain the promise that we are searching for. In reality, they are an illusion, and when we discover that the hoped for promise has vanished, or indeed never existed in the first place, it is all too late. The idea of an external being enticing us into regrettable acts is fertile ground for the religious imagination. The story of Jesus, fully human and fully Divine, is not complete without telling the story of his wilderness encounter with a character who proposes genuine alternatives. Lent is an intensified time for each of us to confront the voice that seems real, but is in fact, the voice of falsehood. May we grow, like Jesus, to resist the voice that leads us away from our true selves.

Fr. Anthony