“Set your hearts on the most important gifts…faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:13)

Chapter 13 of St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has to be my favourite scripture passage, having an impact on me since I was 15 years of age, which was essentially when my faith began to matter to me.

I was on a school retreat at Brettargh Holt in the Lake District, and as part of our final prayer, we each received a “text from God”, were mine said,

St. Paul writes: Sarah Beatty, “set your heart on the most important gifts… the greatest of these is love.”

As I read my text, I caught the eye of my chaplain, Sarah, who smiled and said “that one’s very apt for you!”

I think the quote is very apt for the seasons of Lent and Easter as well. At the very beginning of Lent, we are told to fast, to pray and to give to those in need – these three things are at the core of our faith, along with love.

In today’s Gospel from Mark, we are reminded of the greatest commandments – to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

But where is hope? Lent is the time to prepare for the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for all humankind, by dying on the cross, shedding his blood, and taking on all our sins so that we could be reconciled with God – and that is where we find our hope. The hope that by his death, we are reconciled with our Father in Heaven, and by Jesus rising again on the third day and then entering into Gods kingdom, we have hope that we too will enter into eternal life with Him in Heaven.

The symbols used for faith, hope and love are another thing that I value, having them displayed on my charm bracelet, which only has certain meaningful charms on it. And they also remind us of our Lenten journey.

Cross – The symbol of our faith and a constant reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made on Good Friday.

Heart – In his teachings, Jesus was constantly reminding us to love God and love one another, and everything that he did, was for love.

Anchor – We find our hope in Jesus when we put our trust in him, and when we do that, He becomes the anchor rooting us to our faith.

So for the rest of Lent, let us set our hearts on the most important gifts – faith, hope and love.

Sarah Beatty, 22

Volunteer at Animate Youth Ministries

Archdiocese of Liverpool