News of our Monastery

Feasts

Lent

"In that place of solitude,
Forty days, forty nights,
Will you, be guided by the Spirit? "

                                      Liturgy of Lent

For many the word Lent is still synonymous with sorrow, repentance, boredom ... in short, "the desert". But, is the desert really sad? Does not The Little Prince say that, "the desert is so beautiful it hides a well somewhere"?
The Word of God presents the desert as a place of temptation and testing
certainly, but, it is also a place where love calls us to return to basics:

"I remember the devotion of your youth,
How you loved me as a bride, following me in the desert ... "(Jeremiah 2:2)

 

 

 

But if we were unfaithful, if we had broken the covenant ... would this love be lost forever?
It would be difficult to know the heart of our God!

"The unfaithful wife, I'll seduce
I'll drive her to the desert
I'll speak to her heart.
(...)
She shall respond there as in the days of her youth. "(Hosea 2:16-17)

 

But this love, this tenderness, not received but rather found whenever we agree "to be led into the wilderness", can not remain locked in the heart of him who has so received it.
We must look around and see ... the others in distress, or simply in need of support ... or of just a little love and friendship:

"This is the fast that I desire:
Release those bound unjustly
Untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
Sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
And not turning your back on your own. "(Isaiah 58)

But also, forgive, and most importantly, accept and ask for forgiveness:

"When you bring your gift to the altar, if you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar go and first be reconciled to your brother. Then come back and offer your gift. "(Matthew 5)

And then joy flows down the road:

"Your light will spring up like the dawn ...                 You will be like a watered garden ..." (Isaiah 58)

         

                                                                                                                                    

But then, fasting, penance, in short, everything that we once called "the bonds" or "the practice of Lent", does it not make more sense? Of course it does! As the Church reminds us in many prayers planned for this season
.
Already, at Ash Wednesday we said emphatically:

Lord,
Protect us in our struggle against evil.
As we begin the discipline of Lent,
Make this day holy by our self-denial.

But ... to be exact, this is not required or prescribed, but a free choice to fight against the evil spirit, or rather to burst with love for a being who soars spontaneously and detest anything which hinders souls to run freely to meet the Beloved.
Those who practice sports, mountain climbing, or, more simply are desperate to succeed in something dear to their heart, know that they must pay the price that the choices and sacrifices impose. Are they the most ardent seekers of God? Besides, St. Paul reminds us strongly:

"In the stadium races, all run, but only one receives the prize. Therefore so run to win! Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things to obtain a perishable crown. But we do it, to win an imperishable crown. (...) That's why I train my body so that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. "(1Cor 9)

But also:

"Mine are the heavens and the earth is mine, and mine are the people the righteous are mine and mine the sinners, angels are mine and the Mother of God is mine and all things are mine, and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and for me.
What do you ask then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less, nor pay heed to the crumbs which fall from your Father's table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart".

                                       (The prayer of the soul enamoured)*

 

                           

Lived well, the asceticism of Lent is that purification of the impatient expectation of the Beloved.

"The closer it gets ..." yes, the hour approaches! That's when the Judean desert, usually so dry, begins to fill with flowers...

As the fox said to the Little Prince:. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am!"

 

 

Then, not long, forty days. And when we know that after these forty days He will be there, streaming with light in the glory of His resurrection ... we "dress" our hearts for the meeting.         

                                                  

                                                       

*Translation by Fr Kieran Kavanaugh, ocd.

 

Message of The Holy Father Benedict XVI for Lent 2011