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I’ve chosen as a theme-thread for these daily Lenten reflections the heart of Pope Francis’ Year of Jubilee call to live as Pilgrims of Hope.

From his hospital bed last week Francis invited us to consider that hope is the ability to see beyond appearances.

Now there’s an inspiring thought for Lent which is above all else a time to renew hope, to deepen hope, to live with hope.

Without hope abundant life is impossible.

And we all have hope but its often buried in the ash of life.

In Lent our vision is renewed… a real cataract operation for every sense.

It is helpful for us to remember that in the northern hemisphere these are springtime days and the word  “Lent” in Old English, means “springtime” or “lengthening of days”.

And spring is a time of new hope.

A couple of weeks ago I drove from Christchurch to the West Coast through the one thousand plus hectares of bush and farmland destroyed in December wild fires. Back then the scene was of devastation as people feared for their lives and livelihoods.

But on my drive I couldn’t miss the signs of hope as green shoots of new life covered the scorched landscape.

During the fires all we could see was the destruction. But the seeds of new life, albeit hidden, were already present.

Lent, spring-time, pllgrims of hope, new life.

Now there’s a great beginning to a Lenten season of hope.

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Pope Francis update

I have invited three young Marists currently studying in Rome to give FFF readers updates on the chat-on-the-ground in Rome in these days of Pope Francis’ illness. Hemi. Joseph and Lachie have responded positively so we can look forward to news from their point-of-view every now and then through Lent.

Today Lachie shares a thought:

Every day I take the B Line Metro to University. And the little screens that reside in the middle of the carriages provide me with the updates I need on Pope Francis. Unfortunately, the blurry letters and the roughness of my own Italian means that lines like this: Papa Francesco ha passato un’altra notte serena in ospedale. (Pope Francis spent another peaceful night in hospital.) makes the heart skip a beat (The Vatican really needs to make their press releases a little bit clearer). It’s the most one person has been the focus of the small screens since the Australian Open earlier on in the year (Jannik Sinner).

I study at the Gregorian (Pontifical Gregorian University) in Rome where the conversations at during the 15 minutes breaks for class range from invites to the Rosary at 9:00 pm St. Peter’s (way too late for me), or the bus trip out to the Hospital (which normally is a quiet route but is now chocker), to people focusing on who “the next guy is going to be.” My tutor for the English seminar (which I did this afternoon) is a member of the Vatican Diplomatic Corp and although he is tight lipped, he did say that the Cardinal Secretary of State was with Papa Francesco over the weekend because he was still up for doing some work. Even from a hospital bed he is still at it. No rest for the… holy, I guess!

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