Blessed Lent!
Dear Fellow Parishioners of Our Lady of Divine Providence Family,
Blessed Lent! Our Gospel today tells the story of Jesus’ fasting and temptation in the desert. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three practices of Lent, relate directly to the three temptations that Jesus faced and overcame, and they also relate to the ways that Adam and Eve were tempted by the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Jesus undoes by his fasting and obedience what Adam did by his eating and disobedience. Our Lenten practices contribute to healing, reconciliation, and unity. By strengthening self-discipline, fasting heals our relationship with ourselves; by practicing mercy, almsgiving heals our relationship with others; and by worshiping, prayer heals our relationship with God.
To some, the idea of going for forty days without food might seem daunting, and to our first-world comfortable lifestyle, it might even sound a little crazy. I thought so too, for a while, until I learned what human beings are really capable of. I was amazed to learn that frequently people top Jesus’ fast! The longest reported time a human has gone without food is 385 days, during a hunger strike in prison (don’t try that at home, kids, but do be inspired and motivated!). The human body, when inspired by sufficient motivation, is capable of incredible things!
Liturgically, the Church teaches that our worship should reflect the sacred nature of the Lenten season. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, paragraph 313, teaches that during Lent, there should be no instrumental music except to support singing. Accordingly, you may notice increased opportunities for silent prayer during Mass. Please take this time to be more mindful and aware of God’s presence.
One practice I would encourage us all to take up during Lent is contemplation of the crucifix. Consider these words from Fr. Haggarty:.
A sustained gaze on a crucifix, refusing to avert our eyes, can change our lives completely in a single hour. I have known this to happen to souls, and I have experienced this power of the blessed crucifix myself. An hour of holding a crucifix in one’s hands invites a recognition that God himself was nailed to a Roman cross. No one can submerge his soul deeply in this thought and remain the same. A hunger for knowing Christ crucified as God himself suffering the Passion may suddenly awaken before that hour concludes. Our eyes will never look at a crucifix in the same manner again. And then we may find ourselves closing our eyes at the sight of a crucifix, loving him blindly, realizing that the suffering of Jesus on the Cross takes place in the present hour of timeless eternity. This love for the crucifix is in truth a measure of love itself. His suffering continues mysteriously even now, in the wounds afflicted upon his body the Church. He joins himself to those who are stricken with love for him and approach Him as One who still suffers. The gaze on a crucifix brings to life this thought—that mysteriously he still suffers, that he still asks for the eyes of the souls beneath the Cross to seek His gaze and unite themselves to his suffering. (The Hour of Testing, p. 246).
FYI- the Church grants a plenary indulgence to those who, fulfilling the usual conditions, recite the following prayer before a crucifix on Fridays in Lent:
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, While before Your face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul, pray and beseech You, To fix deep in my heart, lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. While I contemplate with great love and tender pity, Your five most precious wounds, pondering over them within me, and calling to mind the words that David, Your prophet, said of You, my Jesus, "They have pierced My hands and feet, They have numbered all my bones." Amen.
Yours in Christ, with Mary,
Fr. Henry Hoffmann
