This resource offers individuals and groups a short introduction to happiness, through scriptural texts about creation, and the human journey. Between Ash Wednesday and Easter, we can reflect together on our baptismal vocation, with the hope and confidence that God is with us all in the process. Remembering the promise of Jesus at the Last Supper to send the Holy Spirit, some call this period Ashes to Fire.
A selection of nine sets of Scripture readings from the Lent/Easter liturgy underpins this resource. Each of the nine sets matches an issue emerging from the twin cries in modern movements.
Taking inspiration from this year’s Lenten Resource 2023 – “A Short History of Happiness: Lent to Easter” by Columban Fr. Charles Rue, we reflect on the question, ‘What is God asking of me during Lent this year?’. The liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the Holy Week of Easter. Since the Second Vatican Council, every pope has written on the mission of the baptised and all church communities to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed. But the task forever changes. We benefit from naming current social and ecological realities in our Lenten prayer. Every year, the earth’s ecological and human social systems evolve, raising new situations. During Lent, Christians around the globe ask themselves: What is God asking of me this year?