How good God is that He generously offers us annually the gracious and blessed Season of Lent. A true gift it is, and we should receive it and live it out to the full.
Like the Season of Advent, Lent is a season of preparation, in this case to celebrate the high-point or summit of our spiritual life that we call the Paschal-Mystery. That is to say, Lent prepares us for Holy Week and the Easter Triduum—Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday which culminates in the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
These forty days of Lent are viewed as a spiritual pilgrimage, heading toward Calvary, the Cross of Christ, and His death on the cross. However, the last word is not death, but Life! Christ died; Christ rose from the dead, and He will come again. The Israelites spent forty years in the desert; Jonah preached that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days—if they did not repent. But of even greater importance: Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the desert praying, fasting, and battling the devil, giving us an example to follow.
Our Lenten journey or pilgrimage was outlined and paved by Jesus who is indeed our Model; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one goes to the Father except through Jesus. Indeed, if we are to prove victorious over the devil and his minions, as well as the flesh and the world that surrounds us, then Jesus is our path to victory.
Ash Wednesday introduces us to the Holy Season of Lent. By receiving the ashes, we are reminded acutely of two inevitable truths that should penetrate and permeate our minds during the whole course of these forty holy days. First, that one day we will die; the day, the hour, the moment and the manner is known to God alone. Second, conversion of life must become our password in Lent, as well as for the rest of our lives: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk. 1:15)
More important than receiving the ashes on Ash Wednesday would be to participate fully, actively and consciously in Holy Mass; and, if in the state of grace, to receive Holy Communion.
The Readings for Mass on Ash Wednesday, and most specifically the Holy Gospel, set the scene for the tone and thrust of the 40-day Lenten Pilgrimage.
Taken from the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord and Master, and greatest of Teachers, sets down the groundwork for the Lenten discipline. (Mt. 6: 1-24) This spiritual Strategy or Plan of Life can be summarized in three fundamental practices.
Father Al Hall, O.M.V. presents a tri-dimensional portrayal of this spiritual program: 1) go up—this is through prayer; 2) go in—this is through penance or fasting; 3) go out—this is through the practice of almsgiving or if you like the corporal works of mercy. (Read Mt. 25: 31-46)
Our thrust in this brief essay will be to offer various ways that we can go up to God by exercising a more frequent and fervent prayer-life. If done efficaciously, by going up to God in prayer, undoubtedly, God will shower down on us an abundant deluge of graces and blessings. The Highway to Holiness will be our Road-map to heaven.
We invite all to read carefully, better yet, meditate calmly these few ideas. Then choose as many of these practices as you are inspired to undertake so as to live out a fruitful Lent. This will culminate in a joy-filled and glorious Resurrection when the Easter sun breaks forth and shines upon us!
LET’S GO UP TO GOD WITH HANDS ON HIGH AND HE WILL RAIN DOWN GRACES IN ABUNDANCE ON US, INDEED A DELUGE OF GRACES…
1. MORNING-PRAYER. Commence every day by offering your first fruits to God in prayer. Imitate Abel whose gift was pleasing to God because He gave God his best. Pray your Morning-offering where you give all you have, all you are, and all you will undertake this day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Kiss your Scapular and then you will have started off the day in a way pleasing to God. If we start off the day well, by lifting our mind and heart to God, there is a good chance that we will live the day in a way pleasing to God and end spiritually triumphant!
2. LITURGY OF THE HOURS. Undertake the Liturgical Prayer known as the Breviary or more complete, the Liturgy of the Hours. Priests, Deacons, and Religious (male and female) are all committed to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. One of the primary purposes is to sanctify the Hours of the day, but also to pray and to intercede for the people of the world, the poor, the sick, the dying and any needs of the Church.
3. THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS. A practice highly recommended by the Church, the saints, and the Popes is the pious practice of the Stations of the Cross. Quite simply, you pass from one of the 14 stations to the next, stopping at each one and offering a prayer to Jesus who carries the cross, loaded with our sins, for the salvation of the world. Such a prayer puts us in contact with the infinite love of Jesus who willingly suffered excruciating pains for your salvation and mine. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your cross you have redeemed the world.”
4. THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. Of all the prayers underneath the sun, by far the greatest of all prayers is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This prayer unites Heaven to earth. This is the prayer in which Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, offers Himself to the Eternal Father for the salvation of all humanity, and that means each and every one of us individually. Perhaps the best of all Lenten practices would be to participate in Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion with a pure heart, and overflowing love, daily or as often as possible. Try it! Bring your family along with you!
5. CHAPLET OF DIVINE MERCY. This short but efficacious prayer, in just a few words, summarizes the essence of the Paschal Mystery: Pray on the large beads: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. Pray on the small beads: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, Have mercy on us and on the whole world. Prayed five times around the Rosary beads you have completed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. These few but poignant words highlight the Paschal Mystery: the Holy Eucharist, as well as the Passion and Blood that Jesus shed for the redemption of the world.
6. CONTEMPLATE THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY. If we really want to plumb the depths of the infinite suffering that Jesus underwent for our eternal salvation we must turn to Our Lady, especially Our Lady of Sorrows. Spend time contemplating how much Mary willingly suffered for love of Jesus and for love of us. The following are the Seven Sorrows of Mary: 1) The Prophecy of Simeon; 2) The Flight into Egypt; 3) The finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple after three sorrowful days of search; 4) Jesus meets Mary carrying His cross on Calvary; 5) Jesus dies as Mary stands beneath the cross; 6) The dead body of Jesus is held in the arms of Mary (Pieta of Michelangelo); 7) Jesus is taken from Mary’s arms and buried. Saints have derived infinite graces by contemplating the Seven Sorrows of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows.
7. THE ANGELUS. Pray the Angelus every day. If possible, pray this Marian prayer three times a day. It summarizes the two key mysteries in the life of Christ—the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. Aim at praying the Angelus at 9:00 a.m. so as to sanctify the morning hours; at 12 noon so as to sanctify the afternoon hours; at 6:00 p.m. so as to sanctify the night. Stay close to Mary and she will keep you close to Jesus.
8. LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. A very holy brother, Brother Lawrence, came to the conclusion that if we can simply strive to live daily in the Presence of God, then we will avoid sin and know what is pleasing to God. Get in the habit of living in the Presence of God by saying short but fervent aspirations during the course of the day—“Jesus, I love you, save my soul”… “Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation,”… “Jesus, I trust in you”… are just a few examples among many.
9. DAILY HOLY HOUR. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen strongly encouraged the practice of the daily Holy Hour. He called it the HOUR OF POWER! For more than fifty years as a priest and several as a Bishop, this great Servant of God never missed even once being faithful to his daily Holy Hour. He attributed this practice, and his deep union with the Eucharistic Lord, as the key to his success as preacher, writer, world missionary and evangelist. Try it—make your own daily HOUR OF POWER!!!
10. OUR LADY AND THE HOLY ROSARY. Not only can we undertake the practice of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, but this Lent we should strive to pray the most Holy Rosary, and most especially the contemplation of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. An ideal would be to set aside some time every day to pray the Rosary in the family. How true the words of Father Patrick Peyton, the Rosary priest, resound: “The family that prays together stays together,” and, “A world at prayer is a world at peace.”
Friends in Jesus and Mary, the success of the party depends on the prior preparation. Even more important: the resounding and jubilant Joy of Easter Day and the Easter Season depend on how we live out the Holy Season of Lent. Let us live this Lenten Season as if were our last! Let us truly die to sin, so as to live in the light of the Glorious Resurrection of the Risen Lord Jesus!
