Lenten Reflections from Fr. Dominque, OSJ - Updated

The following are notes from a talk given by Fr. Dominique, a few years ago, about the meaning of Lent. I have adapted them very slightly in order to help clarify the meaning in English, as the speaker is French. The content is still the same.

Lenten Reflections

Lent is a retreat that the Church gives us in order to re-focus on what should be first in our lives. The purpose of Jesus' life was to glorify the Father and Save the world. Today, we are called to rediscover the dignity of being invited to live as the Son.

Lent is not first a time of giving up but a time to re-choose to be victim of Christ, the Lamb. It is a time to live the Beatitudes. If sleeping less makes us gloomy, then we should sleep as we normally do. Lent should bring us joy – Christian joy. We become joyful when we live out the sacrifice of Christ in our lives.

To re-choose a Christian joy means to embrace the sorrowful mysteries that lead us to the glorious. During the Lenten season, we must refocus on Jesus Christ crucified and glorified – all else is accidental. The world, though, has it all backwards on what is essential and what is accidental. Christian joy is so simple but it implies that we choose it – this involves a choice that is madness to the world.

Baptism implies that we are "dead to the world." This phrase makes a good examination of conscience: "Am I dead to the world?" “Am I concerned with what concerns the world or am I focused on what concerns the Kingdom of God?”

The Virtue of Prudence


If we are prudent, we will choose to focus on the Kingdom of God. In light of the end, we will choose the means. Both will be chosen with faith and love; not simply on the basis of human needs.

The prudence of a married man is very different than that of one without dependents. First, he must choose a means of sanctification of his married life and then let the graces flow from there. One does not need to wait to enter religious life to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. Plan what you want to do with your life this Lent and do your homework but do so in total poverty, willing to accept any change of plans that come your way.

Desert implies a place of purification and of temptation. It can also be defined as a place of union. First of all, though, it is a place of adoration. And it is through this adoration that we will attain purification and union of our will with God's will.

God leads His people into the desert when they have been seduced. Some examples of God’s seduction might be:
1. You are always on the go, never stopping and then you get sick with diarrhea.


2. Everything in your life is going great -- you have a nice car, a big house, a high-paying job, a beautiful wife, but then your wife gets cancer.

Either we let God bring us to “the hospital” through his “seduction” or we choose to go there freely.

Many people are now in the desert (psychologically, physically, emotionally, etc.). Hopefully, they will find a way to adore, but most do not do this. Instead they complain and search for a way out. As a consequence they get stuck. You have to accept the desert and learn to adore (or you will never get out and move on to the resurrection). We all need someone to help us with this. Most people don't understand the why and the how so they just try to get out. Most people do not have a Shepherd. We all need a Shepherd.

Deserts can be incredible places of conversion. The forty days of Lent are a gift from the Church. It is a time in jail; a time in the hospital; a time of a little less freedom.

Mainly, the Church asks us to enter forty days of adoration. We must re-organize our days for this. During these forty days, we personally choose to eat a little less, sleep a little less. We do this, though, in order to re-focus our life. And then we choose a way to adore more consistently during the day and week. In Lent, we re-choose a life of adoration, a life in the world of God and a life of giving ourselves in charity.

Forty days will go fast. There is no greater joy than to adore, to read the Word of God, to give of ourselves in charity. There are times when our body may not be happy, but our soul will be. Our bodies may be too tired, too hungry, too hot, but our soul rejoices.

Start each day of Lent with the desire to give as much as possible, to let go as much as possible. It should be a time of fervor. If you are called to give your shirt, give your coat too!

Advent is joyful, too, but it is a little shy of Lent. Easter is joyful, but only if you have properly lived Lent. You must go through the cross.

Faith is not intellectual; it is an experience that must be entered. This is truth of the cross, as well. You have to experience the cross to understand it. And only this can shed light on the resurrection. You must desire to live of the death and the resurrection or your faith is dead.


We must enter into the mystery of the true food by which we are fed. If I eat of Christ (from each of the three spiritual foods: His Word, His Will, and the Eucharist), I will have all that I need.

"God alone suffices" – St. Teresa of Avila.

We are called to give up the accidental and to focus on the essential. A life of fervor means that we must give more than human prudence would dictate. If lent is lived only in human prudence, it is not fervor, it is not lent.

Lent is a time for prayer and for hope. The more we give up and let go of the more hope we have in Christ! We need to live every day as if it is the last day. If this is done, there is no need to put hope in anybody but Christ.

It is so Simple! But instead we put our hope in our family, our friends, in our community, our girlfriend, our supervisor, etc. None of these people will be there when we cross the border from this life to the next. We must do our best to help them and others but we should not worry about response. Then we are free.

We must lose everything. Ask Jesus to take everything, to be poor. Pray, "Please make me poorer!" We must give up all that we want. We pray for million of things in order not to ask to be poor. We don't want to give up the things that "we" want the most. We want to choose our crosses and choose how we want to be a martyr. This isn't what we are called to do, though. Children are free. It is easy for a child to die; not for an old person to die.

If we let go of all we will face any trial with joy, detached from the accidental and resting in the essential.

Comments

  1. Could we have a brief bio of Fr. Dominique,OSJ? We need to know a little about him before we quote him!

    ReplyDelete

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