As the Catholic Church prepares for the start of Lent next week, the Archbishop of Westminster has urged Catholics to embrace truth and justice, and resist anger and self-indulgence.
In a pastoral letter read out in churches yesterday, Cardinal Vincent Nichols emphasised the importance of fidelity within relationships.
And he called Catholics to mark the Rededication of England as Mary's Dowry this year by making a personal act of dedication.
"Soon we will be entering the season of Lent, a time when we seek spiritual renewal in our lives. Step by step we will look into ourselves and pinpoint the ways in which we are neither truthful nor just, and the ways in which we close our hearts to the promptings of God," he said.
There can be "no place for anger; for self-indulgence and betrayal, especially within sexual intimacy and the commitments we have given", he continued. "Rather, we seek wisdom and find happiness in following God’s law. This is our project."
The pastoral letter was published a few days after he met Pope Francis in Rome for the blessing of the Dowry Painting, of Our Lady of Walsingham. Pope Francis blessed the icon, by Amanda de Pulford, at the cardinal's request. "He did so because he knows that during this Lent, on 29 March, all are invited to make a personal act of dedication of our country to Our Blessed Lady," the cardinal said. "In doing so we repeat the dedication made in 1381 by Richard II of England who promised this land and its people as the Dowry of Mary."
From 19 to 22 March, the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham will visit Westminster Cathedral for three days of devotion and renewal. There will also be three days of prayer from 26 to 28 March, leading up to the National Day of Rededication on 29t March.Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
In Rome at the Angelus, Pope Francis also called on Catholics not to be enslaved by "passions and sin" but to live the commandments as instruments of freedom.
Referring to the 18-month displaced baby girl who died of cold in Syria last week before she could be brought to a health centre in time, Pope Francis said: "We think of wars, we think of the consequences of wars."
She was among the many calamaties.
"This is the result of passions and people who make war cannot control their passions. He fails to fulfil the law. When you succumb to temptations and passions, you are not lords and protagonists of your life, but you become unable to manage it with will and responsibility."
When you do not love your neighbour, you kill yourself and others to some extent, because hatred, rivalry and division kill the fraternal charity that is the basis of interpersonal relationships, he added.
"And this applies to what I have said about wars and also to talk, because language kills. By accepting the Law of God in your heart, you understand that desires must be guided, because not everything you want can be had, and it is not good to give in to selfish and possessive feelings.
"When one accepts the Law of God in one's heart one understands that one must abandon a lifestyle made of broken promises."
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