Meeting with Christ

"Lent is the most opportune time for considering how we receive the sacrament of Penance...It is a meeting with Christ, who makes himself present in the priest. It is a meeting which is always unique and always different...He heals our wounds, He cleanses us and strengthens us...

"Every contrite Confession is a drawing near to the holiness of God, a rediscovery of one's true identity, which has been upset and disturbed by sin, a liberation in the very depth of one's self and thus a regaining of lost joy, the joy of being saved, which the majority of people in our time are no longer capable of experiencing.  It is up to us to help others to e aware of, to experience, a sense of loss of God, so that they may draw close it him, for He is waiting for them."
--from In Conversation With Christ, vol. 2, pp. 43-44.

Micah 7:7-8

During the battle they called on God, and he heard them because they had put their trust in him. (1 Chr 5:20)

"Lenten self-awareness can bring with it a temptation to give up before we have even begun the season in earnest. We may seem to have failed so badly, year after year, to grow in the love to which we are commanded. To abandon the struggle is to yield to the "enemy," the evil that urges us to give in because we know ourselves to be weak. The message of Lent is that God's merciful love is stronger than all that urges us to settle for the least we can be."  Magnificat pg 380

As for me, I will look to the Lord, I will put my trust in God my savior; my God will hear me!
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy! though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.  Micah 7:7-8

The Great Combat

"O Jesus, I withdraw in spirit with You into the desert; teach me how to fight the triple concupiscence of the flesh, pride, and avarice." Divine Intimacy, pg. 288 God had given us the means to overcome all temptations; nobody sins necesarily. Let us consider, in depth, during this lent what that means. As well as this, in order to free us from the devil's influence, God has given us an angel to help and protect us. "If you call upon your Guardian Angel at the moment of trial, He will protect you from the devil and will bring you holy inspirations." In Conversation with God, p 32.

Inconvenienced

"If only we knew the inner meaning of those incidents we call hindrances, contradictions, reverses, dissapointments, misfortunes, and failures, we should of course deplore any disorder they might involve..., but we should also reproach ourselves for complaing and give more consideration to the higher purpose that God is pursuing in all that He wills, and even in his divine permission of evil." Fr. Reginald Garigou-Lagrange, O.P. quoted in Magnificat p. 368. For those intersted in making a Lenten retreat online, here is a link that may help you.

Fasting

The season of the fast has opened to us the gates of heaven; let us enter it with prayer and supplication, that on the day of the resurrection we may rejoice with the Lord.

"The Lord vanquished the devil after He fasted for forty days, not that He would have been unable to conquer him before fasting, but that He might show us that we can be victorious over the devil when, by fasting for forty days, we have been victorious over fleshly desires."

St Maximus of Turin (quoted in Magnificat p. 347)

"Let us strive, then, dearest brethren, to observe this holy season with the utmost devotion, and let us occupy ourselves during these days in repairing our spiritual arms. For now the Savior, with all the children of the universal Church, as with his whole army, wages war against the devil." -- St. Bernard (quoted in Magnificat, p. 336)

Our True Self

Jesus declares, "Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." This is sacrifice: handing our imperfect self over to the One who responds by handing us back our true self through his gift of self on the cross. The Lord sets before us life and death, and asks us to "choose life" by obediently taking up Christ's cross of death. "Without a 'dying,' without the demise of what is simply our own, there is no communion with God and no redemption." Pope Benedict XVI, Magnificant pg 328

Choose Life

"I call heaven and earth today to witness against you;
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live,
by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him."
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NAB

40 Days of Prayer and Fasting

The Lenten Journey begins.
Let us reflect: “Our sins can weigh us down with discouragement. Saint Ignatius of Loyola tells us that discouragement is never from God because it clouds faith and hope. God’s love does not deal in punishment as human vengeance does. God’s love disciplines us in order to free and purify us - sometimes a painful process - so that we may not die but live in Christ.” from Magnificat pg 252.

Let us begin this year’s journey with both feet firmly planted in the disciplines recommended by our mother, the Church, with one foot in fasting and the other in prayer:

• remove the obstacles in your relationship with the Lord
• deliver family members out of the clutches of the enemy

-from hatred

-from hardness of heart

-from unforgiveness and

-from apathy (indifference)

“This kind does not leave but by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:21 (Mark 9:29).

Preparing for Lent

I thought Divine Intimacy might have some tips on preparing for Lent. I was right, but they don't have 3 days, they have 3 weeks worth! In short, they encourage purification of the senses, detachment and the way of "Nothing". A tall order for 2 days, but it is worth turning your mind and heart to the Lord to see what He may want for you this Lent. Here is just a taste of what Divine Intimacy offers during this preparation time:

"My God, give me the light necessary to recognize in myself all that keeps me from union with You...You know, O Lord, that I have great need of Your help, for I am too attached to myself to be capable of struggling against my disordered affections, of giving up so many little pleasures which feed my egotism. I love myself too much to sacrifice what separates me from You. Then, let me present myself to You, O Lord, as a sick person to a surgeon; plunge the knife into my soul, cut away and destroy all that displeases You and that is not in accord with Your will." (Divine Intimacy #79, p. 235 of the one volume version).