First Sunday of Lent (2025) - The First Commandment of God

Happy Lord’s Day! Today is the First Sunday of Lent for the entire Church, but the readings of the Epistles and Gospels for this Sunday and the next five Sundays (six in total) will be coming from the Tridentine Mass. Today the Epistle reading is from 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 and the Gospel reading is that which is according to St. Matthew 4:1-11. The following lay reflections will be coming from the “The Moral Law - Six Lenten Sermons On The Commandments Of God” by Archbishop John Joseph Swint who served as the fourth (4th) bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling (Now: Wheeling-Charleston) from AD 1922 to his death in AD 1962 (40 Year Episcopal Reign). His Excellency, Archbishop John J. Swint (D.D. - Doctor in Divinity) wrote these sermons in the 1930s. The sermons are around 90 years old and as they were relevant in those times, they are still relevant today. Therefore, the Lenten reflections you will hear from me are from the very sermons Archbishop Swint once wrote and preached. The titles of these reflections will be the same titles to the sermons Archbishop Swint wrote and gave. This is why you’ll see in the title to this episode, “The First Commandment of God” which is what he titled the original sermon. Since it is his work, I can take no personal credit except for delivering these sermons through podcast. He wrote in the introduction of the book that contains these great sermons when they were originally released the following: “The only excuse for the appearance of this little book is the hope, on the part of the author, that it will be of some service, especially to priests in preparing a Lenten course on the Commandments of God. The Christian moral law, as never before since Christianity began, is now under attack. There is need of preaching on the Commandments, which principally contain the moral law. The arrangement is purely arbitrary, the purpose being to compress the Ten Commandments into six sermons or instructions — one for each week of Lent. Both arrangement and treatment are the fruit of many years of experience.”So true is the fact that the, “the Christian moral law, as never before since Christianity began, is now under attack.” Therefore, in the continuing of the Archbishop’s work in handing on the faith 90 years later, his work is being put into a podcast episode to be able to be heard by everyone, wherever one might get their podcasts. This is that both clergy and faithful might gain insight, knowledge, and an increase of faith and love in the Commandments of God throughout the United States and the entire world. I must make clear, I am NOT a member of the clergy, but a simple layman trying to advance the Word of God taken from the Catholic Mass throughout the world to deliver lay reflections. Pray that my faith would not fail and that I should always deliver what the Holy Ghost permits me to deliver to you and every listener. I have personally undertaken this task during Lent out of my love and respect for the works of Archbishop Swint. May his memory be eternal, may he rest in the eternal peace of Christ, this Lent, I ask that you remember his soul in prayer. God Love You!