Franciscan Media

Our thoughts turn to the passion and death of our Lord, and we long to share his pain with him. What is the pain of Jesus? It is the pain of loving and not being loved in return. He has loved us with an everlasting love, and what do we give him in return? We allow our minds to be preoccupied with little things and so spend many hours without thinking of Jesus. And yet our hearts and minds, bodies and souls, belong only to him. Let us meditate on the sufferings of Christ each day.

Lent is a favorable time to intensify spiritual life: may the practice of fasting be of help to you, in order to acquire greater mastery of yourselves; may prayer be the means to entrust your lives to God and to feel him always nearby; may the works of mercy help you to live open to the needs of brothers and sisters.

– from the book The Hope of Lent

We are called as Christians to proclaim the liberating news that forgiveness for sins committed is possible, that God is greater than our sinfulness, that he freely loves us at all times, that we were made for communion and eternal life.

– from The Hope of Lent

Hide nothing from your confessor. A sick man can be cured only by revealing his wounds. — St. Margaret of Cortona

– from A 40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics

Speaking about God and bringing the message of God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ to men is the duty of all the baptized. And this duty involves, not only speaking with words, but in all one’s actions and way of doing things. Our whole being should speak of God, even in the ordinary things. In this way witness is authentic, and thus shall it always be new and fresh in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lent calls us back to seeing that God loves us as we are and wants to heal us. We do the right things for the wrong reasons and sometimes do the wrong things with the best of intentions. Even something objectively wrong can become, through God’s grace, a sign of something holy and healing, a marker along our path that leads us home to God.

– from The Hope of Lent