Fr Tom Thomas IC

Apostolic Administrator of the Falkland Islands and Superior of the Ecclesiastical Mission to St. Helena, Tristan Da Cunha and Ascension Island

Pastoral Letter for the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2025

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

My warmest wishes to you all on this fourth Sunday of Lent. I hope that you are all well. I look forward to seeing you all at some point this year.

We are already half way through our Lenten pilgrimage as pilgrims of hope in this year of Jubilee. The focus of our Lenten journey is conversion. As mortals we are reminded of the passage of time, seasons and our own passage from this World to the realm of God. On Ash Wednesday we were reminded once again that we are dust unto dust we shall return (Gen 3:19). But this reality of our mortality should not frighten us but rather enlighten us to know that we have a God on our side who has become one like us in everything except sin. In his infinite mercy he died for our sins and that we can share in his resurrection.

On the First Sunday of Lent we journeyed with Jesus into the wilderness full of the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The temptation Jesus had in life is the result of his decision to carry out the mission entrusted to him by the Father to live to the very end his reality as ‘the beloved son’ who trusts totally in the Father. Jesus’ incarnation is to free us from sin and from the ambiguous fascination of planning our life leaving God out. Jesus fought the devil himself until its head is crushed at the food of the Cross. We can all identify with moments in our lives where we enter a ‘wilderness’, a place where we lack spiritual consolation. For because ‘we walk by faith, not be sight’, we perceive God as ‘in a mirror, dimly’ and only ‘part…our experience of evil and suffering, injustice, and death, seem to contradict the good news; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it. (CCC 164)

When our faith is shaken, and we are vulnerable we can be tempted to begin to believe that we are alone and that we are not loved. As Christians we know that this can never be true for we are never alone and we are always loved. The reflection on this Sunday’s gospel shows the everlasting love of the father. To experience the Father’s Love, we need to give into his Love.

I would like to ask you three questions; What do you do with your hunger? Who do you worship? and What do you do with power? These three questions might help you to focus more on the question God puts to Adam; Where are you? (Gen 3:9). Lent is a pilgrimage to the origins! The perennial temptation of many of us: leave it until later. Not now; there is plenty of time later. Tomorrow, the mystical land, where 99% of human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes metanoia like this: it involves a radical reorientation of our whole life.  A return, a conversion to God with all our heart. An end of sin, a turning away from evil. A desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace.

Bishop Robert Barren says this: “Christianity is above all, a way of seeing. Everything else in Christian life flows from and circles around the transformation of vision”. Conversion is a transformation of vision. A new of seeing, relating and living life. Conversion is not preserving one from problems and misfortunes, but allows one to face them in a different “way”.

I pray for all of you and invite you to journey with Mary our Mother who followed her son Jesus during his final journey to accomplish the mission entrusted to him. Let us also like our Saviour make our journey in hope and faith for the good of the Church and the World. We shall hear the invitation: “well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness”. Blessed Lent.

With every blessing

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Tom Thomas IC

Apostolic Administrator