The lent period is almost here!
We are proposing an every day prayer moment prepared by the Sanctuaries of Paray-le-Monial
Dear friends,
Lent is a providential time. Between the cold of winter and the first rays of spring sunshine, creation comes to life again; our gardens not without effort will see the fruit of a hidden work. Lent ads to this renewal of creation the call to renew our interior selves.
What will be our points of attention? What do we want to plant, to cultivate within ourselves? What do we want to see germinate in spring? What if through external gestures we finally aim at an inner target?
Lent for Christians begins with a call: “Come back to me with all your heart, for I am a God of tenderness”. It culminates in the contemplation of Jesus crucified with a pierced heart.
Let us make this Lent a heart therapy. We can have a heart murmur, a broken heart, a withered heart… During these 40 days, let us take care of our heart.
“Rodrigue, do you have a heart? “(Corneille, le Cid) Don Diègue asks his son. This is a question that God invites us today to ask ourselves: Do you have a heart?
When Jesus unveils his Heart at Paray-le-Monial to Saint Marguerite Marie, it is his whole person that He reveals: what He is in the deepest, His true nature, His substantial unity, and what made all His life on Earth, His encounters, His feelings, His reflections, His sufferings and His joy, His tiredness and His exaltation.
Our heart is not only the inviolable and hidden place where God dwells, but also what constitutes the entirety of our person, in its bodily, affective, psychological and spiritual dimensions.
To refocus on the heart is to return to the essential.
The challenge of Lent is to resurrect with Christ. The heart appears to be the key to the proper functioning of our whole being. Let us resurrect our heart in all its dimensions, to move from a heart of stone to a heart similar to the one of Jesus.
Let us revisit our heart in all its dimensions throughout these weeks so that we all finally have a heart that is 100% “Divergent” (Veronica Roth): at once strong and charitable, intelligent, just and fraternal.
Father Benoit Guédas
Rector of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart
Each day, the course includes a short word, a short text from the Bible and a small action for you to take.
First days of prayer are to be found in this article. Every week you will have a new article with the reflections of the week.
You can also follow our Facebook page, where we will post the prayer of theday.
ASH WEDNESDAY:
“Come back to me with all your heart”! “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21).
What is the “heart”(the centre) of my life? What is the most important thing for me?
Action: because our deep and spiritual heart is also a carnal heart that needs proper care, as Christians are called to do, I choose to fast. Fasting has recognized dietetic and therapeutic virtues. A diet of several days, or a single day diet, allows to purify and detoxify the skin and all the organs, and to regenerate the organism in depth. Beyond the spiritual effects, my heart of flesh will also be renewed!
Holy Thursday :
On Thursday evening before entering his passion, a disciple puts his head on the Heart of Jesus and listens to his Heart beating. It is close to the Heart of Jesus that he learns to know his own heart.
What if the people around us were entrusted to us to teach us to love?
Action: “I will take away your heart of stone, I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26) I consider the people I meet today: which one rejoices my heart? Which one touches my heart? Which one changes my heart?
Holy Friday :
The time of Lent leads us to the contemplation of the pierced Heart of Jesus on the cross. The model of the heart that God proposes to us is therefore not the one of a top athlete, but a wounded heart. Without looking for them, the wounds that impose themselves on us enrich our heart and our whole being. Is it not from the open Heart of Jesus on the cross that his infinite love for each one of us springs forth? Our supplication is simple: “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like yours!”
Action: Today I can search for a text from the Bible, or watch this video: whether I am a believer or not, what is it that touches me in this episode? What draws me to the Heart of Jesus?
Holy Saturday :
How can we find our hearts amid our hectic lives ? How to listen to our deepest inner voice during our activities or the multitude of daily distractions ?
On Saturday, the Church meditates on the recollection and silence of Mary, the mother of Jesus. “She kept all the events and words in her heart. »
Action: Today, the day of proofreading my week, I give myself 5 minutes to be silent and take back what I have written in my notebook since the beginning of this Lent.
