Reflection for 22 February 2026: 1st Sunday of Lent (Year A)
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
Dear Marian Helpers and Members of our Marian Family,
We usually think of Lent as a dour time; a time of penance and fasting, a time of introspection. We probably don’t think of it as a joyous time of thanksgiving and praise. And yet, Lent is the perfect time for these things because, through our penance and fasting, through our introspection and examination, we realize just how sinful, how miserable (to borrow the words of St. Faustina) we really are.
Through the fall of our first parents, we were separated from God by sin and death. Through the Passion of Christ and His Rising, we are reconciled with God and with each other in righteousness and life. Despair is turned to hope and righteousness is possible for us all!
Give thanks to the Lord for this time of Lent; a time to recognize and reflect on how weak we are and how strong God is. We give Him thanks for His grace, which strengthens, renews, cleanses, protects and sanctifies us.
We thank Jesus for His obedience to the Father; an obedience that cancels our disobedience and brings us access to all of the blessings and graces that Heaven can and wants to bestow.
Consider adding not only penances to your Lenten practice but times of thanksgiving and gratitude as well. The more we give thanks, the more we realize how truly we are loved and blessed by our God.
May God bless you now and always!
Fr Alex Pumphrey, MIC
______________________________
Contact Father Alex at info@divinemercy.org.uk
Please send us your prayer intentions during Lent! (click here). We will place them at the foot of our altar in the Divine Mercy Apostolate’s Chapel here in West Ealing, London and will remember them in our daily Chaplets of Divine Mercy.
