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Bishop Erik Varden gave the Papal Lenten Retreat 2026 and spoke about biblical paradox. The word comes from the Greek: Para - Beyond Doxos - Opinion. It is one among many literary techniques that is able to express profound truths, not open to conventional language. For example: Less is more. Apparently, Adolf Hitler hated the Bible because it is full of paradox. Life is full of paradox, and so we find metaphorical language to express it. John’s Gospel highlights the paradox

John will be the dominant evangelist for Lent from hereon in: Today the Woman at the Well, then the Healing of the Blind Man, followed by the Raising of Lazarus. The Holy Thursday Gospel features John. Good Friday always rolls out John. On route from Judea to Galilee Jesus ‘had to pass’ through Samaria – a common phrase in John, indicating Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father and the Father’s will. We should not underestimate, for a minute, John’s alertness to Jesus’ humanity:

Pope Leo XIV, on annual retreat, has been sitting at the feet of Bishop Erik Varden (Norway) who reflected on the question: What is truth? Christ is truth itself and so truth is personal – both objective and subjective. When I can say, ‘I am not a thief,’ I have taken the objective truth – ‘Thou shalt not steal’ – and internalised it perfectly. Varden makes this claim: Ambition represents a particular form of capitulation to un truth. Why would this be the case? Because humil

200 Words: Taken by Christ Evidently, the first two weeks of Lent encourage us to reflect upon the mystery of Jesus. The testing of Jesus manifests his humanity (Matthew 4). Our good friend Brendan Byrne, SJ, says Jesus is being invited to the false self, and what is true for Jesus is applicable to us: We are tested to identify with what we do. We are tested to identify with what people think of us. We are tested to identify with possessions – wealth, thoughts or ambitions. T

Michael McLaren interviewed Bishop Percy on 2GB Radio about the significance of St. Francis of Assisi and the 800 th anniversary of his death. St. Francis stayed awake many hours at night asking God two questions: God, who are you? God, who am I? Bishop Percy speaks about the return to faith and the coming to faith of young people, especially young men, since 2020.

200 Words: Recorded to Rekindle Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. Pope Leo XIV reflected on the relationship between Tradition and the Bible in his Wednesday Catechesis: There exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end (28 January 2026). The ‘fir