Venial Sin

"Venial sin, like mortal sin, goes counter to God's will, although with less serious deviation.  While it does not destroy charity, it is opposed to it and therefore diminishes its fervor and vigor, hindering its development.  This is the disastrous effect of deliberate venial sin committed with the realization that it is displeasing to God.

"Once venial sins of this kind become habitual, they decrease the soul's tendency toward God, and increase on the other hand, its leaning toward self-satisfaction and creatures.  Thus, little by little the soul loses its fervor, its sense of sin, and falls into tepidity, which is characterized by a certain indifference to venial sin.  This puts it in danger of offending God in serious matters also.  In this sense, venial sin can be compared to a disease of insidious languor, a kind of spiritual tuberculosis which undermines the organism slowly but fatally.  It is not unusual to meet souls who having at first surrendered themselves to God with sincere fervor, afterwards let themselves fall into continual carelessness, indifference, voluntary omissions and laziness, because they have given in to selfishness and sought their own comfort.  They become incapable of making the generous efforts required to advance on the way they have started.  Their spiritual life is reduced to a kind of lethargy which is not yet death, but which has none of the freshness and vigor of a strong, healthy life.  It lacks the fervor of charity, for this is continually being lessened by deliberate venial sin."  -- from Divine Intimacy, p. 297

Living in God's Will

"How can you know if you are living in God's will?  This is the sign:   If you are troubled about anything, that means you are not completely abandonned to God's will.  The one who lives according to God's will is not troubled about anything."   Starets Silvan, quoted in Into Your Hands, Father, by Wilfrid Sinissen, p. 21.

Transformation

"Lent is a time of transformation.  As we gaze in the drk faith ofprayer upon the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, we are transformed into his likeness.  As we leave the work of prayer for the work of charity in our world, we live in his likeness."  --Magnificat, p. 61

Ask and Praise

God's love will do more for us than we can ask or imagine: let us give thanks and praise.
Magnificat. pg 29

God's love takes delight in answering his people's prayers...all he asks in return is our trust.
Magnificat pg. 23.

Rejoice in hope, endure in afflication, persevere in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

Commanded to Pray

In prayer the illusions of our own will are unmasked. "The sober and vigilant heart, says Hesychius of Bathos, "calls continually upon Christ out of the depths, with groaning that cannot be uttered. He who struggles so sees the enemy crumble to dust before the holy and adorable Name of Jesus like stubble before the wind." The purity of heart to which this surrender of the will leads is the same as that from which will arise uncesaing prayer. According to the fathers they both amount to the same thing.

If prayer enables us the better to understand the Fathers's will, it also helps us to penetrate deeper into reality. To a heart steeped in prayer everything becomes transparent. To it is disclosed the inmost core of being. In prayer everything points to God, speaks in some sort of His Name, praises Him unceasingly.
Father Andres Louf, O.C.S.O. Magnificat, pg. 29.

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