We started on our Lenten journey since Ash Wednesday with the best of intentions, expecting to grow closer to our crucified Lord. In the last 5 weeks, you resolved to give up your favourite dessert, you were kind to your annoying neighbours and you tried hard not to miss your prayer times. You have been faithfully fasting by giving up at least one meal on Fridays.
You have become a little holier now. Am I right?! Or are you, conversely, feeling worn out, finding yourselves growing irritable and impatient?
If so, you may have taken the wrong approach to Lent. As we have seen in these past few weeks, the heart of Lent is not about Resolutions - it is about Repentance and Love. It is the orientation of our hearts back to a loving Father who awaits our return. In what ways have we drifted away; what are we truly sorry about? The three tools of Prayer, Fasting (Penance) and Almsgiving will help to condition our mind and heart towards a right attitude in our observation of Lent.
The gift of Lent is not in what we have lost but rather in what we have discovered: the sweetness of sacrifice, the power of prayer. The depth of our encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus depends on how we lived out the holy season of Lent. Spend some time writing about how fruitful Lent has been for you instead of fretting about how wearisome and frustrating it has been so far.
HOLY WEEK is here once again. It begins with Passion Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday with the Evening prayers (Vespers). During this time of the liturgical year, we are called to enter into a deeper journey of uniting ourselves with Jesus, connecting our sufferings to His sufferings, our passion to His passion, our need for the glory of resurrection to His glorious Resurrection. Reading the Passion story of our Lord reflectively will predispose us towards experiencing the Joys of Easter!
God chose Our Lady to collaborate intimately in His work of our redemption and sanctification. May she accompany us in Holy Week as we unite ourselves with Christ in His Paschal Mystery reaching its climax at His glorious Resurrection! Let us enter Holy Week with a pure heart and a steadfast spirit - dying to sin and rising to new life!
Have a Blessed Holy Week
Have a Blessed Holy Week
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