The Lord wants our hearts! He wants to abide within us, so that, even now, we can live in the abundance of the Trinitarian life, knowing the presence and love of Christ who brings us salvation and mercy.
Heart speaks to heart! The Father desires to speak to our hearts in a very particular way this Lent. He wants to free us from the sins, wounds, obstacles, and negativity which keep us imprisoned in darkness and chaos.
Mission and temptation
Immediately after His Baptism, the Lord went into the wilderness to fast and pray, preparing Himself for the supernatural mission which lay ahead. Absorbed in solitude, resting in the Father’s heart, He was also confronted by Satan who tempted Him to turn away from His mission, to use His divine powers for Himself. Knowing the identity and purpose of Christ, that He is the Son of God and had come into the world to destroy the power of sin and death, the devil tried to stop Him at all costs.
Apply this fundamental moment in the life of Jesus to your life. This Lent, the Lord wants to lead you into the wilderness of your own heart, to speak His tender love to you, to heal your wounds and forgive your sins, to renew your identity as a beloved child of the Father, and to reinvigorate your sense of mission and vocation.
More prayer
For this to truly happen, we need to set time aside every day for prayer. Most of us, as busy as we are, find it difficult to regularly pray with attention and devotion, to move beyond the simple recitation of words. Let this Lent be the graced moment when you allow the Lord to truly lead you into prayer, as you have never experienced it before, deeper and richer, a foretaste of the good things to come!
God wants you to rest in His Heart. He lovingly desires this peace for you. A question we must ask is: Do we want it for ourselves?
Many of you already have a well-developed prayer life, but many others may need to fundamentally change something in their daily routine to accomplish this commitment: Getting up 30 minutes earlier, omitting television time, or going to a place of silence in the basement. Something will have to give for us to truly embrace a rhythm of prayer within our daily life.
Let the focus of your prayer this Lent be the daily Mass readings. Chosen for us by the Church, an Old Testament reading set side by side with a Gospel, these Scriptures will lead us directly to the Heart of Christ and His chosen Word which He desires to share with us.
Read the readings several times. Ponder them. What word, phrase, image, or message stands out? What questions, thoughts, feelings arise in your mind and heart? Bring all of that to the Lord. Let His love and presence wash over you. Abide in that peace. Rest in His Heart. Speak your heart to His.
Finally, is there some action which you feel the Lord calling you to embrace as a fruit of your prayer? Let the impact of this reflection time guide you throughout the day, in your thoughts, words, and actions.
Dealing with Evil
As mentioned above, the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent is always the temptation of the Lord in the wilderness. Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus rejects the Evil One’s attempts to pull Him away from the Father, to lure Him away from His mission, to dazzle Him with the false joys of a selfish life. The Lord refuses all of these lies and temptations, quoting Scripture against Satan, so that his falseness will find no room in His Heart.
What lies, temptations, addictions, bad habits, and sins afflict us? In what ways has Evil pulled us away from the Father? What wounds, memories, sorrows, and tribulations have become obstacles in our spiritual path because they remain unhealed? What lies about God, others, and ourselves have we come to believe as truth? What darkness does the Lord want to cast out from us, so that we can know the joy, peace, and love which flow from resting in His Heart?
The three traditional practices of Lent — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — open us up to relationship, prayer to God, almsgiving to others, fasting to our deepest, truest self. In these relationships, we discover our deepest identity as sons and daughters of the Father, purchased with the Precious Blood of the Son and anointed in the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we also find our missionary purpose — to live as disciples of Christ in the proclamation of His saving Gospel to the world. Thirdly, we come to know our destiny — life on high in Christ Jesus in the glory of Heaven forever. The Good News of our faith reminds us that we do not need to wait until the next life to taste the abundance of God. The Lord wants us here and now to know, love, and serve Him.
My upcoming columns throughout Lent will focus on each Sunday’s readings with some accompanying reflective questions which we can bring to prayer, all centered on the theme of Heart Speaks to Heart.
Go fearlessly into the wilderness of your soul. You will find the Lord there waiting for you.