Lent is an olympiad of love, a journey of conversion walked barefoot, as a path towards Easter. It opens the door to a long period of journeying, a pilgrimage through our inner world, through the mark we leave in the lives of others and events. To see everything in the light of the Word and let that light reflect back to us what needs conversion.
Jesus shows us the spirit with which we must live this time of conversion. He invites us to go deep within and be coherent and sincere with ourselves. He leads us to where the Father sees us as we truly are and whispers to us with infinite tenderness, “You are my beloved child.”
To convert, to pray, is to enter the secret room, into the intimacy of my being, to live with Christ, with Him and in Him, to open ourselves to God’s love, to treat as a friend with the One who loves us. Every person who prays grows in humility within, to strengthen in charity on the outside.
He invites us to fast, to grow in hunger for God and service to our brothers and sisters. It is a paschal fast that is always filled with love that hungers and thirsts for the Beloved; through fasting, we are invited to not blow the trumpet, but to press the silent key of love, which opens to His heart and closes to what makes us slaves of our own passions.
When you give alms, give your life and your time, that which requires a burning charity. Christian charity is not given by those who do not commit until the end, give until it hurts.
Today is the day, it is the one I have, the one God gives me. There will always be a dream to fulfill, an ideal to fight for, a love to quench my thirst for fullness. But the opportunity is now, to take the step that brings me closer to my dream, to say a word or make a gesture that instills that ideal, to open the heart with generosity and show my love to those around me, those with whom I live and relate to in this daily life that is my life today.
To convert, to pray, to fast, and to give alms all go through the moment of discovering who I am, who my brother is, to see and to look at him with the heart of God.
Sr. Mª Jesús Sánchez Mesón
Valladolid Community
Rosa Santaeugenia Province
