The Holy Season of Lent is offered to us as a spring time of God’s grace and as a season to renew ourselves in the experience of God’s merciful love – given in the form of prevenient grace and in the form of pardon and forgiveness. It is a time to experience and receive God’s compassion and merciful love, and a season to share this love with others.

At the beginning of her reform of the Carmelites, St Teresa of Jesus was asked by the nuns of her first foundation – the monastery St Joseph in Avila – to teach them how to pray. In her response, she chose the spirit of Lent as her guide; she chose the Gospel of Mathew Chapter 6.

We return to the altar rail, this time guiding you to the opposite side of the Basilica, near the altar of the Sacred Heart. Here we see an anachronistic image of Thérèse kneeling before the Madonna and Child. Thérèse stretches out her hand as if to stroke the Child’s face.