THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
22nd February 2026
Greetings.
The Book of Common Prayer contains a Table of all the Days of Fasting or Abstinence throughout the Year, at the top of which appear The Forty Days of Lent. There is no prescription as to what exactly fasting and abstinence entails though clearly it is the opposite of indulgence of the kind permitted on feast days and enjoyed in secular revels such as Carnival. The tradition has long been honoured in the custom of giving something up for Lent, which, if chosen well, can have numerous benefits, physical and mental as well as spiritual.
The gospel text for The First Sunday of Lent is always one of the accounts of The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness (this year it is Matthew 4.1-11), each of which ends with the ominous note that the Devil left him until a more opportune time. It is a reminder that temptation is never vanquished entirely and that the struggle against it is lifelong. This can sound both daunting and wearisome until we remember that it is not a solo enterprise. In the wilderness, in the Garden of Gethsemane and finally on the Cross, Jesus drew on the strength of God the Father. Without that, he could do nothing. And the same applies to us. The battle against temptation is an opportunity to discover afresh where our true strength lies. Whatever qualities we are endowed with, that strength is not innate, it is rather the gift of God revealed in Christ and conferred by the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as Grace. We maintain the struggle in the grace of God, and when we stumble or fall - as inevitably we do - it is grace that heals and restores. May your keeping of Lent, may our keeping of Lent, be abundant in the grace of God.
Every blessing,
Charles Booth
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