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Archbishop Paul Cremona and Bishop Mario Grech have jointly issued a pastoral letter for Lent urging the faithful to see God and the Church as being their teachers offering them guidance in their lives.

“This is God whom Lent presents to us every year: He is God who accompanies us to teach us and build us up. God who makes himself present in the concrete circumstances we live in, even if these are bad or painful. He is God who helps every person, walks along its path so that gradually, one step after another, it can move out of life’s desert. “He will take care of his flock like a shepherd; he will gather his lambs together and carry them in his arms; he will gently lead their mothers” (Is. 40,11). God leads us to become whole men, alien to sin and tied to his will. First and foremost, He speaks to the heart. He finds us exactly where we feel the void, where we are hurt, where we are completely doubtful. He touches us to cure precisely where we are confused, where we are most weak when faced by vices like drugs, drink and games, that slowly strip us of every dignity.”

“God teaches us with a lot of patience to find strength that shapes and forms us humanly and spiritually. Saint Paul writes: “For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of the whole human race. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ will appear” (Tit. 2,11-13).”

“The Church is a community which received the Gospel but, before evangelising, she has to be evangelised herself. It is a Mother Church and Teacher. She is not only a Mother and not only a Teacher. She is a Mother as she has to love and have pity and open doors to everyone; but she is a Teacher because, by means of the same Word of God, she has to “teach the truth, rebuke errors, correct faults, and give instruction for right living”(2 Tim.3,16). The Church, while showing compassion and mercy, cannot fail to offer and point out the way of truth as found in the Word of God.

Finally the bishops also urged the faithful to prepare themselves spiritually for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in April by “seeing in the Pope, Vicar of Christ and Peter’s successor, the one who confirms us in the educational process of faith that will lead us to state as Peter did: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (Jn.6,68).”