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"Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one's flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, kindles the true light of chastity. "
— Saint Augustine
(Fasting need not be only from food. Consider some degree of fasting from media this Lent.)
Lenten Retreat (on-site and Zoom)
Lessons from the Passion of Christ
March 12, 2022 (Saturday)
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CST
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Dt 30:15-20; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Luke 9:22-25 (Take up your cross)
Jesus tries to help his disciples realize that his commitment to love will lead him into a fatal conflict with the authorities of his day. Dying to ourselves for the sake of love will lead us, with Jesus, to new life.
- Make a list of some of the attributes of the old self which you need to change for the sake of love. Which of these attributes most frustrates your efforts at loving?
- Pray for the grace to change destructive behaviors.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
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BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE
Chapter 19: That penitence without love is imperfect.
The beginning of good things is good, the progress better, the end the best. At the same time, it is as a beginning that the beginning is good, and as progress that progress is good: and to wish to finish the work by its beginning or in its progress would be to invert the order of things. Infancy is good, but to desire to remain always a child would be bad; for the child of a hundred years old is despised. It
is laudable to begin to learn, yet he that should begin with intention never to perfect himself would go against all reason. Fear, and those other motives of repentance of which I spoke, are good for the beginning of Christian wisdom, which consists in penitence; but he who deliberately willed not to attain to love which is the perfection of penitence, would greatly offend him who ordained all to his love, as to the end of all things.
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