February 22, 2026

Dear People of St. Patrick Parish,

On this Fifth Day of Lent, we have come to Mass, the Blessed Ashes we received on Ash Wednesday have disappeared, but the words said, as they were placed on our foreheads, “Repent and Believe in the Gospel” are to be remembered and lived.

The first reading today from Genesis reminds us how sin and death came into the world and how Adam and Eve were misled by the Devil. The Devil is still misleading people today and we do sin, but we must learn to reject all His attempts to lead us into Sin.

The Gospel tells us of Jesus being tempted during His 40 days period of prayer and fasting in the desert.

We need to know that God does not tempt us in our lives, and the Devil cannot make us sin, he can only suggest and try to lead us to follow his way of life.

Jesus is a wonderful example to all of us to not give into temptations. We pray to Jesus and ask Him to help us tell the Devil to get lost, we love and serve the God who created us.

Lent gives us the opportunity to go to Mass and Holy Communion. Fasting and Abstinence from meat during Lent can help us have enough strength to tell the Devil and sin to get out of our lives.

Praying the Stations of the Cross and following Jesus gives us the courage and strength to resist temptation to sin.

When we give up something, we really like, we grow in strength against evil things, we really condition ourselves to resist the many temptations to sin.

And by the way, going to Confession during Lent can help us see how good and loving and caring our God is to us. Let us not reject His love and mercy.

A Blessed Lent,
Fr. Larry Young
Your Pastor