The presenter for our sixth week of Lent is Virgencita Alegado rsm from the third cohort of the Mercy Global Action Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Virgencita is from the Philippines. She is currently serving as the School Head of Holy Cross High School, a Diocesan school which has been managed by the Sisters of Mercy since 1960. At the same time, she is one of fourteen Institute Ministers of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. For her lenten reflection, she calls us to 'be like the sun that shares its light freely'.

A beautiful sunrise calls us to gratitude for God’s gifts. As the sun rises, it fills the Earth with its radiance. It does not choose where and with whom to share its beauty and light. As the 13th-century Persian poet and mystic Rūmī once wrote, “And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.”

This Lent may we be like the sun that shares its light freely. May we open our hearts to listen to the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor, as Pope Francis implores us to do. These cries are everywhere. We may not be able to embrace them all, but we have the power and the capacity to respond. Listening to the groanings of the Earth and of God’s people made poor, those of us who are privileged can choose to live simply. We can decide not to be complicit with systems and corporations that ravage our fragile planet and harm its most vulnerable people.

Let us therefore choose what gives life. As Ezekiel says so eloquently of God’s promise, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.