For the journey of Lent this year, Kevin O’Gorman SMA chose an unusual companion, the Pope’s Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, ‘Rejoice and Be Glad’. Few of us rejoice at the coming of Lent, a time we most often associate with abstention and stricture. It easy to imagine the look on the faces of parishioners who are told ‘rejoice, Lent is here!’ Christianity is a religion of the unexpected: the triumph of Good News in bad places. Journeying in Joy and Gladness offers a day-by-day guide to Lent, pairing each day with a reflection on Gaudete et Exsultate. Lent offers us a chance to renew our commitment to lifelong conversion, to strive for changes of mind, body and heart; changes that O’Gorman and Pope Francis remind us do not come at the cost of happiness but make it possible and give us reason to rejoice.
