CathInfo.com

Sermons for Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent.  AI translations and audio.



Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Dearly Beloved, as we begin the season of Lent, Holy Church cries out to us all with the words of the Prophet Joel: "Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy." Dearly beloved, what does it truly mean that we are to rend our hearts? It means nothing less than that we are to purify them; we must tear them open so that all the evil we have accuмulated within them over the past year may flow out. For if we were to look sincerely at how we have lived this past year—what we occupied ourselves with, what we devoted our time to—we should likely conclude with terror that we are people constantly living far from the Lord God.

We Catholics of the Tradition delude ourselves. We think how wonderful we are, what good Catholics we are. And yet, so often we resemble the Jєωιѕн Pharisees, against whom Our Lord Jesus warned. At the threshold of Lent, my dear ones, we ought to look into the depths of our hearts and sincerely answer the question: What have I filled it with? What have I filled my heart with this past year?

Then we shall understand why the Church, on Ash Wednesday, cries out to us: Rend your hearts. We must rend them, probe them, and cleanse them. For what purpose? So that they may be filled with something entirely different than before. If we cleanse and empty our hearts well and thoroughly, then on Resurrection Sunday there will be room in them for the Peace of Christ. But if we do not cleanse our hearts to the depths, if we do not rend them today, if we leave within them that which is rotten, evil, and tainted—then that Peace of Christ will very quickly vanish from our hearts.

Dearly beloved, we desire to pray today that, with the help of God’s grace, this Lent of the Year of Our Lord 2026 may be "Great" in our lives not only in name, but that it may be a time in which great works are accomplished in our souls. A time of great spiritual growth, a time of great spiritual purification, a time of great conversion.

"Turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy." What, in essence, does it mean that we are to be converted? It means nothing other than that we must turn back from the paths of our lives which we have carved out for ourselves, and return to the Way of God—to that path which leads to the reward of eternal life, the path shown to us by our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great task of Lent: Conversion. A true, sincere, and deep conversion. A change of direction, a change of mindset, a re-evaluation of everything according to the Divine Order.

This is precisely the time—the time of penance—given to us by Holy Church for a "great spiritual cleaning." It is time, my dear ones, for the things in our lives to finally stop standing on their heads; for everything to return to its proper place, just as the Lord God envisioned it, just as the Lord God expects of us. And may we not, my dear ones, waste this Lent of the Year of Our Lord 2026. Who knows? Perhaps it is the last Lent of your life here on earth.

May we live it so that when Easter Sunday arrives, when we look back upon these past days, we may be able to say with a clear conscience: "This was a time well-spent. This was not yet another Lent wasted by me—a Lent that was 'Great' in name only."

Dearly beloved, let us therefore begin this time of penance. Let us ask the Most Holy Mother to guide us through the Lent of our lives. Let us ask the Most Holy Mother that through her intercession and with her help, we may receive the graces and strength necessary so that our conversion—our turning back from erring ways—may be permanent. May we not prove to be just more Catholics who make grand promises and great resolutions on Ash Wednesday, only to find that they cannot fulfill a single one of them, nor keep the word given to the Lord God and to themselves at the threshold of Lent.

Let us make use of this time of penance, this exceptional time given to us by Holy Church, realizing how many paths of our lives must yet be made straight. How much mess and chaos remains in our lives! How many things, my dear ones, we must still change so that they are ordered according to God’s will. And let us not delude ourselves—the fact that we claim to be "Traditional Catholics" does not mean that such matters do not exist in our lives.

We must take seriously to heart the words we heard in today’s Gospel: "Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also." What do I value most in life? What do I love most in this world? Is it the Lord God, or perhaps some idol that has taken His place in my life?

Let us rend our hearts and cleanse them, and with the help of God’s grace, in forty days' time, we shall be able to thank the Lord God for this Lent of 2026, which—God grant—will prove truly great in the life of each of us. May we, having departed from these erring ways and wildernesses and having returned to the path of God, persevere on that path until death. And thus, by performing penance, by serving and honoring the true God, may we merit the reward of eternal life.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.








The Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent

Dearly beloved, as we all perfectly recall, our first parents, Adam and Eve, succuмbed to the temptation of the devil. They succuмbed to the satanic temptation. They rebelled against the Lord God and, in consequence, lost Divine Grace. They were banished from Paradise. And this original sin weighs upon all of humanity—upon all of humanity, which, being deprived of Divine Grace, without Divine Grace, is unable to achieve salvation.

And temptation, my dear ones, is something perfectly known to us. Every day, in various ways, we are tempted by the devil. Every day the devil does not cease in his efforts to make as many people as possible sharers in his misery, to drag as many souls as possible down to Hell. Temptations were, are, and until our final breath shall be a part of our human life here on earth.

Dearly beloved, at the threshold of Lent, on this First Sunday of Lent, Holy Church sets before our eyes the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, who goes out into the desert to teach us how we ought to deal with temptations in our daily lives.
The Dialogue of Deceit

To understand how the devil operates, let us look at the first temptation—that temptation in Paradise—and the temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the description of which we have just heard in the Gospel. In the Book of Genesis, we read that the devil began the temptation by asking Eve whether God had truly said, "Thou shalt not eat of every tree of paradise."

Conversation with the devil—an ecuмenical dialogue with the devil—is always the beginning of temptation. The devil comes to sow doubt, to suggest the thought that the Lord God requires too much of us, expects too much from us. If the soul does not reject this diabolical suggestion at that moment, the devil will continue. If the soul begins this "ecuмenical dialogue" with the devil, he will do everything possible to ensnare it in sin.

Eve answers the devil: "Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die." And although the soul is not yet in any way disobedient to the Lord God, if at this moment the devil is not driven away, a very dangerous path opens before it.

For Satan, when he sees that the soul begins to waver, when he sees that the soul begins to doubt the righteousness of what the Lord God commands, attacks further. He attacks in such a way that he begins to present sin as a source of great happiness; he presents sin as something attractive. Thus the tempter addresses Eve: "No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil."
The Three Enemies of the Soul

At this moment, when the devil begins to present sin and evil to us as something valuable, as something that is to give us happiness, there is still time to reject the temptation. There is still time to radically cut off this satanic tempting, for the soul has not yet consented to evil—but that evil begins to seem truly very tempting, very attractive. As we read in the Book of Genesis, Eve perceived that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold for the knowledge it might give.

Beneath this description found in Genesis lies a supernatural reality, a spiritual reality: the three great enemies of the human race and human nature:

    The concupiscence of the flesh

    The concupiscence of the eyes

    The pride of life

Dearly beloved, our first parents did not resist the satanic temptation; they succuмbed to it. They trampled upon the Divine Will and lost Divine Grace. Note that in Holy Scripture, we read that they realized they were naked. This is not merely about the appearance of lust as a consequence of original sin, but this image of the nakedness of Adam and Eve also expresses a spiritual reality. They were stripped of Divine Grace; they were left with nothing. That sin, which was supposedly to be a source of happiness, proved to be a source of misery. Only the bitter taste of deception remained. Only the malicious laughter of the tempter remained. And all of humanity, all descendants of Adam and Eve, were plunged for several thousand years into the darkness of sin and error.
The Victory of the New Adam

And behold, there comes into the world the foretold, promised, and awaited Messiah, the Savior, who today, on the First Sunday of Lent, teaches us how we ought to deal with satanic temptations. How can we achieve victory over the devil?

Observe that the devil, in this temptation of the Lord Jesus, utilizes exactly those three elements he used in the temptation of Adam and Eve. These are the same three great enemies of human nature: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.

    The Concupiscence of the Flesh: First, the devil tries to kindle this in the Lord Jesus. "Command that these stones be made bread." The Lord Jesus has eaten nothing for forty days and nights. He fasts in the desert. In His human nature, He feels hunger. The devil tries to exploit this. He strikes where there is a chance of success. It is always so in our lives. The devil does not swing a sword blindly in the air; he strikes where there is a possibility of triumph. But the Redeemer does not even begin a conversation with the devil. He answers: "Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God."

    The Concupiscence of the Eyes: The devil does not give up. In the second temptation, he seeks to exploit the desire for recognition from others. He sets the Lord Jesus upon the pinnacle of the temple and provokes Him to perform a miracle: "Cast thyself down," for it is written that the angels shall bear Thee up. Again, the Lord Jesus does not allow Himself to be drawn into any "ecuмenical dialogue," but answers him shortly: "It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

    The Pride of Life: Finally, in the third temptation, the devil tries to kindle the pride of life by offering Christ all the glory and power of this world. Again, the Lord Jesus does not discuss, but reminds him of the first and most important commandment: "Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." And then the defeated tempter departeth.

A Call to Repentance

My dear ones, in this time of Lent, Holy Church calls to us all through the mouth of the prophet Joel: "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." This is a time in which we are to rend our hearts so that all with which we have poisoned and cluttered them in the past year may flow out. This is a time of purification.

It is necessary, my dear ones, as we begin this Lenten season, that we pray fervently for the support of Divine Grace in completing this work of rending and purifying our hearts. We must ask fervently that we may learn from the Savior how to overcome satanic temptations, so that these hearts, once purified in Lent, may not be cluttered again.

Remember that the longer a soldier fights, the longer he perseveres in the trench under fire, the greater is his merit. And the greater his merit, the greater the reward that awaits him. We hear in the Gospel that after the Lord Jesus conquered Satan, behold, angels came and ministered to Him. The Lord God will reward each of us for every victory over temptation, for our fidelity, and for our perseverance. He will also reward us when, having fallen, we rise again with the help of Divine Grace—when we do not give up, but continue our warfare.

Let us turn today, my dear ones, to Our Lady of Sorrows, she who stood at the foot of Christ's Cross. Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace that this Lent of the Year of Our Lord 2026 may be truly "Great" in our lives—not just Lent by name, not another wasted Lent, but a time in which great works will be accomplished in our souls. A time of great conversion, a time of great transformation, a time of great warfare, so that we may, at the end of our lives, hear from the lips of the Divine Savior the words: "Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.