Letter from Fr Toby – 1 March 2023
Written by Radio Maria England on 01/03/2023
Dear Listeners,
This time of year has two things I look forward to, one more in principle than reality: Lent and the Six Nations (that’s a rugby tournament for those who are wondering)! Lent is also the one I look forward to more in principle than reality for those who are wondering about that.
I look forward to Lent in the same sort of way that I used to look forward to a hard gym session, glad when it’s over, but also glad that it happened.
Lent is, I think, is a time of religious weightlifting, it’s a time of intentional growth. But that might also beg the question, ‘Shouldn’t we be growing all the time?’ Well, yes, but also no, because sometimes some consolidation is necessary and we cannot exist in a state of perpetual strain.
It’s a bit like when I used to row seriously, when every now and then in a race, the cox would call out for 10 or 20 strokes of maximum effort. The call had to be used judiciously – call too often and the crew would burn out before the end of the race, call insufficiently and you wouldn’t get the most out of the crew.
In our Lenten workout we work three main muscle groups: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I’ve written about prayer and fasting in recent newsletters – in this month’s I’m going to come straight out with it… please make Radio Maria a recipient of your Lenten alms.
I know from the letters that you send and messages that you post, that you value the work that we are doing, and I think in the last few months we have seen some brilliant new speakers, some of our best yet, but whilst all our guest speakers give their time and talents for nothing, it doesn’t cost nothing to make their voices heard. We desperately need more of our listeners to become regular donors so that we can continue to broadcast, continue to be a light in the darkness, we desperately need more donations so that we can reach more people.
Thank you for being part of our mission, may God bless you for all you do for us, and all you will do!
Fr Toby Lees OP
Click here to donate
