Newman on Lent: ‘Now is the accepted time, now the day of salvation’

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Categorised as Featured and published Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
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Looking forward to Lent with Newman: is suffering a ‘passport to heaven’?
A Meditation for the First Sunday of Lent: ‘Deliverance from evil is … the object of prayer’ Right Arrow

The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai

From the earliest times down to this day, these weeks before Easter have been set apart every year, for the particular remembrance and confession of our sins. From the first age downward, not a year has passed but Christians have been exhorted to reflect how far they have let go their birthright, as a preparation for their claiming the blessing. At Christmas we are born again with Christ; at Easter we keep the Eucharistic Feast. In Lent, by penance, we join the two great sacraments together. Are you, my brethren, prepared to say,—is there any single Christian alive who will dare to profess,—that he has not in greater or less degree sinned against God’s free mercies as bestowed on him in Baptism …? … See, then, the Church offers you this season for the purpose. “Now is the accepted time, now the day of salvation.”

From the sermon ‘Life the Season of Repentance’ (1840) Click here for the full text (leaves site)