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Flickr user: Isaac Leedom

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation, which celebrates the visit of the Angel Gabriel to a young virgin in Nazareth called Mary.

Mary did something quite remarkable when the angel visited her, and that remarkable thing that she did changed the world. She simply said YES!

“I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you have said.”

Something special happened that day.

For the first time in history, Heaven and Earth came together. In the womb of Mary, they fused together and they became one.

The love of God came into the world, and that love walked with us. It healed us. It taught us. It laughed with us. It cried with us.

And, utimately… it died for us.

(It then rose again, of course!)

And all because one young girl said YES!

Mary was thought to have been about 14 years old when she became pregnant. The same age as many of you reading this; the same age as many of the people the Youth Service works with each year.

If you are around that age, or even older, can you imagine being asked to do something that would change the world for ever?

Would you say YES! without a moment’s doubt?

Well, Mary did… and that’s what we celebrate today – The amazing example of love and sacrifice that she gave us, and the fact that it changed the world.

Instead of offering a prayer today, why not say the Hail Mary…

Flickr user: Celanth

One of the things we are encouraged to do during Lent is to seek reconciliation. This might mean reconciliation with God, or it might mean reconciliation with others. In a lot of cases, it might mean both!

Maybe there is something in your life that you are not properly reconciled with. Maybe you did something wrong that you haven’t fixed? Maybe somebody did something to you that you never forgave them for? Maybe a relationship with somebody has been damaged by something and you haven’t got round to fixing it yet.

If there is something in your life that you’re not reconciled with, it’s like carrying a heavy rock. It weighs us down. It irritates us. It annoys us. It stops us from getting where we want to go quickly. It stops us from reaching a hand out to help others. It stops us from holding our own hands out to properly receive anything.

One of the key messages of Lent is to take those rocks and put them down. In fact, more than that… smash them into pieces!

So, the question for us all to reflect on is what we need to be reconciled with. There are always three levels to reconciliation: with ourselves, with others and with God.

Reconciling with ourselves is about being honest and facing up to things. Learning from the mistakes of the past, altering our attitude and then allowing ourselves to move on. Reconciling with others is about saying we are sorry, or letting others know it’s okay when they say sorry to us. And then, it’s about fixing relationships and rebuilding what once was lost.

Reconciling with God is perhaps the most simple. God knows us completely and loves us without limit. All we have to do is turn to him.

As well as examining your own mind this Lent, and mending things with other people, you should also make the time to go to Confession in a local parish. Maybe the Sacrament is being offered at your school too? When we go to Confession we receive God’s love in a very powerful way and we come away new and healed.

Seriously, it’s actually pretty cool

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, you alone can heal every wound and soothe every heart. Help us to use this Lent as a time of reconciliation and healing. Help us to mend what has gone wrong in our lives and, in so doing, to draw closer to you and others. Amen.

Flickr user: Shahram Sharif

This Sunday at Mass we heard the Gospel reading from Matthew which we always hear on the First Sunday of Lent. It’s a familiar story and it sets the tone for Lent quite nicely. In the story Jesus is led by the Spirit into the Desert and he is tempted by Satan. This story puts a lot of things in our heads, but perhaps one of the main ones is about the importance of resisting temptation.

What makes temptation bad isn’t so much the things it makes us do, but more the fact that it takes us away form the path we are meant to follow and the people we are meant to be.

God created each of us to be beautiful, gifted, talented and to be loved. He created us to love others and he gave us a specific vocation in life that only we can fulfill. Every day we grow a little more into the people God wants us to be, and as we do, we become happier and more alive.

Temptation is all of the little things we find along the way that take our minds off who we are meant to be. Temptation is the extra hour of TV or video games when we really should be doing some work or spending some time with a friend. Temptation is putting something important off until next week. Temptation is avoiding a person who is difficult, even though they really need us, in favour of something less challenging.

We all need time to relax in life. There is nothing wrong with TV, video games or eating, and there is nothing wrong with relaxing. Don’t get me wrong, some of the things that tempt us are definitely not okay, but most probably are. It’s a question of getting the right balance.

Avoiding temptation is about asking ourselves if we are focused enough on the things in life that matter. Do the other things simply help us to relax and unwind? Or do they threaten to take over?

This Lent can be a good chance for us to look at our lives and to get our priorities straight. Do we put enough time into the things that really matter? Are we ever tempted to avoid the things which are a little more difficult and challenging in favour of easier stuff?

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, you give us a rich and beautiful life and you give us ways to follow you and to serve others. Help us not to be distracted from the things we need to do. Make us always ready to do what’s right, always ready to serve others and always ready to feel the joy you created us for. Amen.

Flickr user: Xerones

Prayer is something that is easy to talk about and think about, but often it can be very hard to actually do.

The Church asks us during Lent to focus on three things: Fasting, Alms-giving and Prayer. In the last two reflections we thought about the first two. Today, we think a little bit about prayer.

People often think that prayer has to be formal or planned. It doesn’t. Formal, scripted prayers can be really great, but at its heart, prayer is simply about spending quality time with somebody we really love and are really close to.

Think about your best friends. Think about the members of your family. You love them. You feel comfortable in their presence, and because of this, you want to talk to them about what you are going through and about what really matters to you. More than that, you want to listen to them too.

In many ways, this is what prayer is. Prayer is spending quality, intimate time with somebody we really love and are really close to. That somebody, of course, is God.

When we pray, we make some time and space for God. We talk to him honestly and openly and we listen to what he might be trying to say to us in our hearts.

This Lent, try to make the time to pray. Set aside at least a few minutes each day to just be still and alone with God. Talk to him. Tell him honestly about your life, your worries, your needs, your dreams. Listen to what he might be trying to say in response.

The results of prayer can really take you by surprise if you are prepared to give it a chance.

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, help us this Lent to make time for you. May or heart speak to your heart and may your heart speak to ours. Amen.

flickr user: HowardLake

During Lent, the Church asks us to focus on Fasting, Alms-giving and Prayer. Yesterday, we thought a little bit about Fasting. Today, we’re going to spend a moment thinking about Alms-giving…

Alms-giving is an old term which basically means giving money to the poor. Today, we might think of alms-giving as donating to charity.

The Church often talks about the ‘three Ts.’ These are Time, Treasure and Talent, and they represent the three most important ways in which we can help those around us. We can donate some money, give up some of our time to help in some way, or we can help by using a skill that we have.

There are a lot of different ways to help those in need and there are a lot of different people in need of our help. Lent encourages us to reflect on our lives and to ask if there is anything more that we can do to help those who might need it.

Are there any charities we can get involved with?

Are there any people around us who could do with our support and help?

If we stop and look, we probably find there is far more around us to do than we realise.

At the minute, there are two specific things we might want to focus on in terms of our alms giving. Firstly, this is Fairtrade Fortnight – a time which invites us to help people in poorer parts of the world who work hard to make the things that we take for granted, like chocolate, coffee and clothing.

Secondly, this coming Friday (March 18th) is CAFOD Lent Fast Day. As we saw yesterday, we are invited to Fast on Fridays in lent and to give the money to the poor. Each year, CAFOD provides us with a great way to do this, so you might want to get involved.

When we help those in need it does a few things. For one thing, it gives somebody something important that they need, but it also does something for us too. It connects us to others and reminds us that we’re not alone. We live in a world where people rely on one another. Each and every one of them matters, and each and every one of them is responsible for making the whole thing work!

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, we ask you to open our eyes to see those in need and to open our hearts so that we may treat them with love and generosity. Amen.

flickr user: ulterior epicure

During Lent, the Church asks us to do three things: Fasting, Alms-giving and Prayer. In the next three reflections, we will focus on these three things. Since today is Friday, why not start with fasting…

Fasting is a tradition which goes back even beyond Christ to the Jewish tradition. In fact, fasting has been present in one form or another in lots of different cultures throughout history.

There are two days in the year when Catholics have to fast: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. We are also asked to make small sacrifices on other Fridays too. Especially Fridays in Lent.

Fasting is about denying ourselves food. We shouldn’t make this a dangerous thing. We should never deny ourselves so much food that we get ill, but rather it is about eating less. We eat less to help us to focus on what Lent is about and we give any money that we save to charity.

When we fast, we accomplish a lot of things. We prove firstly that our faith matters to us. We show ourselves that we are able to make sacrifices for it.

When we fast we also gain a little solidarity with those who are hungry in the world. We learn a little bit (A very little bit) about what it must be like for people to whom fasting isn’t an option, but an everyday reality.

When we fast we also remind ourselves that we are in a special time. Our stomachs get hungry, and this hunger reminds us that there is something about this time of year that is different; something that challenges us to change and to reflect.

So, during Lent, try to fast on the Fridays of Lent. Even if you only go without a small thing, it’s a step in the right direction

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, help us to be people who are always ready to make sacrifices for our faith and help us to make time to fast this Lent. Through the expeience of denying ourselves, may our faith grow stronger, may we appreciate those in need, and may we grow closer to knowing your will in our lives. Amen.

flickr user: koalazymonkey

There is an old saying: failing to plan is planning to fail!

As you go through life, you discover more and more that this is true. Things that you put thought into beforehand generally work out better than things you don’t really take seriously or bother that much with.

Putting time and effort into planning things almost always pays off.

Lent is the same. In some ways, Lent is fairly straightforward, but in other ways it’s probably quite complex.

It can help to spend a little bit of time right at the beginning of Lent – i.e. now – to think about what you want to get out of the next forty days and how you are going to make sure that it happens.

What are you going to do differently during Lent?

What are you going to not do that you normally would?

What are you going to do to get closer to God?

What are you going to do to get closer to others?

Now, don’t worry… you don’t have to have a detailed plan for each of these questions, but it can help to have some plans in mind. By now, you should know what you are giving up or taking on. If you don’t know yet though, don’t worry. It’s not too late. (Or at least, it’s better to start now than not at all!)

Are you planning on following a programme of prayers or refection’s each day? Like these ones, for instance? If so, when in the day are you going to make time for this?

And how are you going to pray during Lent?

Prayer is important, but for most people it won’t just happen. We need to make sure it happens by setting aside some time and thinking about how we want to pray. There are loads and loads of different ways to pray to God. Maybe Lent can be a time to explore some different ones and see what works for you.

We’ve filled your head with a lot of different things to think about there. Don’t let them all stress you out. That’s not what Lent is about. We’re just trying to remind you that if Lent is going to be a fruitful time for you, then it might take a little bit of thinking through

Good Luck

Now, let’s pray…

Loving Father,

I pray that the season ahead of me is a really beautiful one in which I can grow closer to you and closer to others. I pray that I can stick to the things I have decided on and I pray that nothing will distract me from them.

Help each thing I do this Lent to make me a better, kinder, more faithful and more loving person. Help me to know your love for me more and more each day.

Amen

In addition to the reflections on this site, we have found a few things round the web which might help you through Lent.

• MYMission in the Diocese of Middlesborough hae put some Lenten reflection videos on their YouTube Page which are well worth a look. They are a fantastic way to reflect on the season and what it means.

• Busted Halo have a great Lenten calendar called Fast, Pray, Give.

• This link will take you to another resource for your Lenten Reflections. It is an initiative of Kirsty Lacey, formerly of Animate Youth Ministries and now studying Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham University. Each day during Lent different friends and colleagues of Kirsty will be posting a Reflection, including Archbishop Patrick Kelly of the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
  

We will leave you with a great video from Busted Halo…

flickr user: j.zamorano

Bishop Kieran recently challenged Catholics to wear the ashes on their foreheads with pride and to resist the temptation to wipe them off. This is what he said exactly:

“The wearing of the ashes provides us with a wonderful opportunity to share with people how important our faith is to us and to point them to the cross of Christ. I invite you where possible to attend a morning or lunchtime Mass.

“Please try not to rub off your ashes as soon as you leave church, but take the sign of the cross to all those that you meet – in your school, office, factory, wherever you may be. This might just make people curious and wonder why you would do this. If you explain about Lent and Easter it might just make them think and may even awaken in them the questions that might lead to faith. Many people have a dim awareness of Lent and even ashes. It would be good to make this clear rather than dim.

“Don’t underestimate the power of this simple action and wear your ashes as not only a sign of the beginning of your Lenten journey, but also to witness to your greatest treasure in life. This small step could awaken faith in the hearts of many that you meet in a way that words could never do.”

This is a really interesting way to look at Lent.

Lent is a way to strengthen our own hearts an our own faith, but if we do it well and honestly then it may well have an effect on those around us. In short, the way we approach Lent can help us to change the world in which we live.

Let’s pray…

Loving Father, help us to live this Lent in the best way we can. May we be faithful, honest, courageous and strong. May we be proud of our faith and may we not be afraid to show the world how much you mean to us.

We ask you to watch over us as we begin our journey today. May we arrive at the joy of Easter with our hearts ready to celebrate.

Amen.

flickr user: gocyclones

For the past few Lents and Advents, we have posted daily reflections.

This Lent, we’re doing the same but with a slight difference. The difference is that, instead of doing it on a separate site, we’re going to do it right here on yaab.

And so, every day, we will post a reflection to help you to think and pray. We will also post other useful stuff we find around the web which might be useful to you.

This will appear on the front of the site in the regular feed, but we will also stick all of the reflections and other items in a category called ‘Lent 2011′ and we’ll put a nice link on the top left of the page where you can access all of the stuff.

Hopefully, you will find this all useful. If you have any comments and thoughts on it all you are, as always, most welcome to get in touch.