Out now! Listen to episode four of our Lent Podcast, ‘Lent and Hopefulness’
Week four of our Lent 2025 podcast series, The Joys of Lent, brought to you by St Augustine’s College of Theology.
Can Lent be a season of profound hope?
For the fourth episode of our Lenten Podcast, Fr Stanley Njoka, Vicar of St Catherine’s in Hatcham and tutor in Pastoral Ministry at St Augustine’s, invites you to rethink Lent as a time of profound hope.
Instead of focusing solely on sacrifice, fasting, and self-denial, Stanley shows how Lent can be a season for deepening hope and spiritual growth.
‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ – Genesis 3:19
Through reflecting on traditional Lenten practices like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, Stanley considers how these acts can open our hearts to transformation.
He encourages you to think about three very different themes: active hope, the wilderness and the promise and the cross as a symbol of suffering and hope.
Embracing the ‘wilderness seasons’
Drawing from the biblical experience of the wilderness, Stanley considers how times of struggle can lead to spiritual transformation.
He invites you to welcome your own ‘wilderness seasons’ and trust that even in uncertainty, God is at work, bringing about renewal.
How to listen to the episodes
You can tune in to The Joys of Lent wherever you get your podcasts. Just search ‘St Augustine’s College Audio Retreats’ to listen or click the podcast player below.
You can also listen to episode one by following this link to the YouTube version of the episode.
As with our previous podcasts and audio retreats, the YouTube videos have subtitles and closed captions if you need them.
Listen on your favourite platform
Tune in every Sunday throughout Lent
Each week, we will release a new episode to guide you through the Lenten season with thoughtful reflections and uplifting messages.
Look out for the final episode, Lent and Loving, with our Principal, Alan Gregory, on Sunday 6th April!
Catch up on all the episodes
Lent and Hopefulness is the penultimate episode of our five-part Lent Podcast series for 2025.
If you haven’t heard the first three episodes, it’s not too late – just click on the links below:
- Episode 1: Rejoicing in Mortality
- Episode 2: The Joy of Forgetting Oneself
- Episode 3: The Joy of Saying Sorry
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Browse our collection to listen to past Lent podcasts and audio retreats.
