Lenten Prayer and Devotions
Prayer, the heart of our Lenten observance, includes the devotional life. By the devotional life, I mean the customary ways in which we deepen our knowledge and love of Christ, above all, as He gives Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. The devotional life takes on a special significance in carrying out the work of the new evangelization, to which our Lenten observance is directed.
The new evangelization is the teaching and living of our Catholic faith in a culture which is totally secularized or, to use the term of Pope Paul VI, "dechristianized." It is teaching and living our faith, as if for the first time, as the first Christians and the first missionaries to our continent taught and lived the faith among those who had never heard of Christ or His Church. Our culture can no longer be considered Christian because it does not recognize the essential role of religious faith in civic life and no longer respects the natural moral law.
The devotional life reminds of the daily demands of our life in Christ, while we live in a culture which denies Christ and is even hostile to His teaching. The devotional life focuses our minds and hearts on Christ's dwelling with us, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Two devotions, very closely connected to each other, keep us attentive to our Lord Jesus and to the mystery of the outpouring of His life for our salvation on Calvary and in the Holy Eucharist.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Rooted in the Holy Scriptures and practiced in a variety of ways throughout the Christian centuries, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us that our Lord Jesus never ceases to pour out upon us the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit from His glorious Pierced Heart. The devotion was fostered and strengthened, in a wonderful way, through the apparitions of our Lord Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century.
The essence of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is our response to the piercing of the Heart of Jesus on Calvary. The pierced Heart of Jesus is a permanent invitation for us to place our sinful and poor hearts into the Sacred Heart. The devotion to the Sacred Heart helps us to lift up our hearts to our Lord Jesus throughout the day, overcoming, with the help of His grace, the temptation to sin and finding in Him the strength to love as He loves.
The practice of enthroning the image of the Sacred Heart in our homes and places of work reminds us to draw grace from the glorious Heart of Jesus throughout the day. The enthroned image of the Sacred Heart becomes the center of our home and our work, the place which recalls to mind that our Lord Jesus alone is the King of our hearts.
The Season of Lent is a wonderful time for individuals and families to prepare for the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is fittingly celebrated during the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, on Easter Sunday, or during the Octave of Easter. If you desire more information about the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home or place of work, I urge you to obtain a copy of The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, published by the Archdiocese.
Devotion to the Divine Mercy
Pope John Paul the Great strongly promoted the devotion to the Divine Mercy, which our Lord gave us to us through Saint Faustina Kowalska in the last century. In a time when so many had grown forgetful of God and, therefore, had despaired of His mercy and love, our Lord Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina, urging us to place our complete trust in Him.
Saint Faustina taught us to pray, especially at the hour of out Lord's Passion and Death, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, returning us to the source of our salvation in Jesus Christ and our share with Him in the work of salvation. She also taught us to observe the Novena, beginning on Good Friday, to prepare for the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday. The devotion to the Divine Mercy, like the devotion to the Sacred Heart, helps us to keep our minds and hearts focused on the mystery of our Redemption.
If you are not familiar with the devotion to the Divine Mercy, I urge you to use the weeks of our Lenten observance to begin praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy daily. I also encourage you to observe the Novena of Divine Mercy.
Devotion to our Lord and His Passion
Both the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the devotion to the Divine Mercy are privileged ways of coming to know more fully our Lord's love for us and express more fully our love for Him, in return. Both devotions keep us in communion with our Lord in His Suffering and Dying, so that we unite our suffering and dying with Him, as an act of total love of God and neighbor.
These two devotions are privileged means to enter more sincerely into the Passion of our Lord, taking up, with Him, the Cross, pouring out, with Him, mercy and love which knows no boundaries. May your Lenten observance be the occasion for you to grow in devoted love of our Lord, of His Passion and His Dying, especially through devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Divine Mercy.
