Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As the liturgical season of Lent draws to a close, soon we will enter Holy Week, with Palm Sunday and the commemoration of the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem when he was greeted by crowds with ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’. As Holy Week progresses, we approach the Sacred Paschal Triduum, which commences on Maundy Thursday with the celebration of the Mass of the Lord's Supper and concludes at sunset on Easter Sunday.
The Easter Triduum is the culmination of our Liturgical Year. After forty days of challenge and renewal in our faith, it is with deep and solemn reverence that we participate in the commemoration of the passion and death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - but it is with great joy and hope that we will celebrate His resurrection from the dead at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night and on Easter Sunday morning.
Our hope is in the Love that is stronger than death: for it is through our Lord’s passion that our own wounds are healed, with His death that we are raised up, and in His resurrection that we have eternal life. After His resurrection from the dead, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Christ our Lord promised to be with all those who believe in Him until the end of time. The liturgical period before us, therefore, is one which shines out, suffused with ‘hope’.
The coming weeks will be a time of holidays for schools. It will also be a time of both hope and trepidation, as many students will be thinking about examinations and looking ahead to their futures in the coming months. At the heart of Catholic education and the mission of our schools, is the aim to provide our children and young people with the very best education and a formation which nourishes the spiritual, intellectual, emotional and pastoral dimensions of their lives. The faith-filled hope which this formation fosters will enable them to flourish and to have life in its fullness; it will equip them to become compassionate and responsible members of society.
In this Jubilee Year, the Holy Father Pope Francis has called us to be Pilgrims of Hope. The message of Easter and Pentecost is pre-eminently one of hope. I pray therefore for God’s blessing on all those within our academies and schools, colleges and universities who have helped the pupils and students in their care to deepen their relationship with God throughout the forty days of Lent and who have prepared them to celebrate with joy and hope the coming fifty days of Eastertide.
Rt Rev Marcus Stock
Chair of the Catholic Education Service
Bishop of Leeds
