While Lent is supposed to a time of peace and spiritual regeneration, sometimes the sacrifices we offer make us bitter and even a little grumpy. We don’t especially enjoy the spiritual exercises we chose to practice and have a difficult time staying faithful to them.
To counteract any bitterness on our part, St. Claude de la Colombière, the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, suggests that we put ourselves in the “school” of Jesus’ Heart. It is there that we can learn compassion, patience and tenderness.
Jesus did not grumble or complain during his Passion, but offered his sacrifice willingly and with pure love. It is in his Heart that we should abide during Lent and discover a peace the world can not give.
Here is a brief prayer composed by St. Claude de la Colombière that summarizes this teaching and places ourselves into the Heart of Jesus during Lent, where we can learn how to take advantage of the Lenten season in a positive way and establish peace in our soul.
The Heart of Jesus must be our school if we would learn this lesson; let us make our abode in it during this Lent; let us study its movements, and try to conform our own hearts to it. Yes, O Divine Jesus! I will dwell in your Heart, and there pour out all my bitterness; it will soon be consumed. I have no fear that impatience should come to assail me in that retreat. There I will study to practice silence, resignation to your Will, an invincible constancy. I will thank you daily for my crosses, and ask pardon for those who persecute me. I will strive to acquire patience; I am aware it is not the work of a day, but it is enough for me to know that it can be attained to by dint of labor. I ask your prayers, O sweet Jesus! You offered them for your enemies; refuse them not to me, to me who long to love you, to love even the cross and my enemies, for the love of you. Amen.
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And today we celebrate...