The Community’s Lenten season began with the celebration of Ash Wednesday Mass. Throughout Lent, Cenacolo small groups will be holding their annual Lenten retreat. This year, we have chosen to meditate on selected passages from the Gospel of Matthew. In his narrative, Matthew emphasises mountains as the setting for significant moments in Jesus’ ministry. By breaking open on the passages in which Jesus ascends these seven summits of grace, we are once again challenged to take our journey of discipleship seriously.
However, the Christian life unites the moral life with the mystical life. So the retreats are primarily experiences of prayer; of listening and responding. Life in the Kingdom requires a lifestyle of constant repentance, genuine prayer, right intentions, a commitment to godly relationships, and a readiness to serve, witness, and evangelise. Matthew’s Gospel highlights all of these, causing the inevitable “earthquake tremors”—a term he himself likes to use.