Final Exhortation of Septuagesima70 2025

Final Exhortation 2025

Beginnings and endings, endings and beginnings. As we begin - and some come to an end - of the Triduum (based on our geo-locations) we come to the end of another Septuagesima70 and the end of our first Septuagesima70Hard. Deo Gratias, semper Deo Gratias et Mariae!

For endings there are, in the liturgy and in the ceremonies, and in our programme, but there is also associated with this - and this is always one of the key purposes of Septuagesima70 - is new beginnings.

How will my life be at Easter and in Eastertide after what I have lived in these nearly nine weeks? Is it the end of all our practices, or the beginnings of new ones? Is it the end of all penance, and prayer, or the beginning of a deeper appreciation of them both?

At the beginning, in the first exhortation, I reminded us that all of this was to help us to enter into the love of Our Blessed Lord, and His Sacred Heart, wounded so much for us men and for Our Salvation, to console Him, and that Heart, this was the purpose of our penances and prayers and practices, not a mere process of slimming down, nor a process that, once embarked upon, could, with Easter, be jettisoned. IF the love Our Blessed Lord was our strength and motivation throughout all of this, then we stand on the cusp of a very new beginnning in our faith, in our hope and in our love.

Speaking of beginnings and endings, this is not the final exhortation, because I had written one at the start of this week and went to save it and lost it all, so this is the end of something begun and lost. A bit like life, a bit like Lent, a bit like our faith. For indeed this is our faith life: a Life full of endings and new beginnings, of endings of beginnings and new endings in other regards. On this Good Friday (for me) Our Lord bids us again, as He looks at St Peter, and as He looks at us, whatever has been in the past, whatever stands in front of us, look to me, repent, take up your cross, and follow me. We may do so weeping, as St. Peter did, but take up our cross we must!

So as the beginning of Eastertide looms it remains for me only to ask you to continue to pray for all of the participants of this wonderful little programme, and particularly, in your charity, for all those who make it possible - particularly Adam Paige, but also Phoebe and Marisa who are all there in the background doing their little tasks for the glory of God, and for you. Be assured that I will remember you fondly at the altar of God this Easter when the Lord, once again, will rise gloriously.

Man, why ever did you doubt?

In the Risen Lord,

Fr. Withoos

Chaplain.