We are in the first week of Lent. It is also Ember Week, specially dedicated to prayer, acts of penance, and charity, concluding on Saturday with its own Mass.

At the 9:30 AM Mass, children were blessed with small crosses with hearts and written resolutions of fasting and penance for Lent.

On the occasion of the birthday of our Father Ante Gabrić, February 28, 1915, a novena is ongoing during the evening Masses.

We announce our parish adoration scheduled for Tuesday, March 10.
A detailed schedule will be provided next Sunday. We already ask all communities, associations, catechetical groups, and choirs to reserve at least half an hour for our common prayer.

The Palma Academic Choir will hold auditions for new members from February 24 to March 6. Sign up as a future singer in the Basilica!

Next week, on Friday, February 27, Spiritual Exercises begin for all renovation benefactors and all our faithful, lasting until March 1. They are led by Father Niko Bilić and organized by the Anamarija Carević Foundation. Information and reservations on the Foundation’s website. Register now, there are still places available!

A solemn and charity concert, marking six years since the earthquake, “Heart in the Heart of Zagreb,” will be held at Lisinski Concert Hall on March 31, starting at 8 PM. Mozart’s Requiem will be performed by the HRT Symphony Orchestra and HRT Choir, conducted by Robert Homen.

Religious education takes place according to the following schedule:

"The heart of man is restless until it rests in You". These words of Saint Augustine seem to echo in the Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent (Mt 4:1–11). In the desert, the struggle is not only against hunger, but against the restlessness of a heart seeking security far from God. Lent therefore brings us back to the fundamental question: on what are we building our lives?

Temptations today are the same as they once were, only packaged differently. Today we are constantly pulled by the need for immediate satisfaction: to buy and own immediately, to eat immediately, to respond immediately. We are also tempted by the need to be seen, to post everything, to present ourselves in the best light, to prove our worth before others. The desire for power hides in the urge to be right at any cost, to control others, to measure success primarily by social status and money. Jesus teaches us that temptations are not overcome by noise, but by knowing who we are and to whom we belong. When we know this, it becomes easier to resist what distances us from God.

Lent is an opportunity for concrete decisions. Perhaps this year our sacrifice does not need to be from food or drink. Instead, we might give up constant "scrolling" on our phones, watching series late into the night, gossiping, or the need to always have the last word. We can decide to spend at least half an hour each day without screens, in silence, prayer, or conversation with members of our household. Let us try to consciously withhold at least one criticism each day and replace it with words of encouragement.

The desert is not an escape from the world, but a space in which we learn to distinguish the essential from the nonessential, a time when we step away from the noise in order to hear God and our own hearts more clearly. Let us not be afraid to pass through our personal desert, for it is precisely there that our faith matures.