Before Palm Sunday: The Friday Of Sorrows

by Claudine Macalisang

The Friday of Sorrows takes place on the Friday before Palm Sunday and it is a time set aside to honor the sorrowful Blessed Virgin Mary before Holy Week begins.

 

What Is Sin And What Are Its Effects?

by Will Wright

 

Called to Conversion

We are all called to conversion. This was a fundamental part of the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the Gospel. The first call to Christ and His Gospel leads us to Baptism in which we receive “the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life (CCC 1427).” However, there is a second conversion which is the movement of the grace of God drawing us to do penance and to be renewed in Him.

In his writing on the “Lord and Giver of Life”, St. John Paul II writes:

“Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ Thus in this ‘convincing concerning sin’ we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. the Spirit of truth is the Consoler (DeV 31 #2).”

We will briefly define sin and then discuss its effects. Then, we will end by looking at these wonderful gifts of the truth of conscience and the certainty of redemption.

What is Sin?

The call to repentance and conversion means a turning around or turning away from something. This thing which we are fleeing is sin. From the outset, we must remember that God’s grace is bigger than any sin. As St. Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20).” And so, we run to Him who freed us. But what exactly is sin?

Put simply: sin is an offense against God and all reason, truth, and right conscience. It comes from a Greek archery term meaning to “miss the mark.” Sin is a failure to love. Where we perceive a good, we are missing that it is contrary to the law of God.

A sin of grave matter done with full knowledge and full intent of the will breaks our relationship with God. This kind of sin is called “mortal sin.” Venial sin is still sin, and so is still serious, but does not kill our soul within us. After coming to contrition for past sin, we should immediately ask God for forgiveness, and we will receive it. Of course, if it is mortal sin, then we will need to go to the Sacrament of Penance to receive sacramental absolution as soon as possible.

Sin is, ultimately, disobedience. God alone knows right from wrong and so has given us His law to follow. By choosing a lesser good or failing to do good, we are making ourselves like God, knowing good from evil. This leads to our fall from grace. Due to our fallen world, we are all part of this problem of sin:

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:8-9).”

The Effects of Sin

When we sin, there are always negative effects. There is no such thing as a private sin. All sins affect at least us and our relationship with God and likely extends to others as well. The negative effect of sin is a greater attachment to sin and the temporal effects of sin. There can also be a psychological sense of shame. One other effect of sin, which is not necessarily negative is guilt. Let us take some time looking at these a bit further.

Attachment to Sin

No one sins thinking that they are doing something that is completely devoid of good. When we choose to sin, we are choosing what we perceive to be good. However, we could be choosing a lesser good when we are obliged to choose a greater good. We may be choosing a good at an inappropriate time. Other times, we might fail to act out of the perceived good of self-preservation.

Whatever the intention is of the sinful action or inaction that we chose, we have formed an attachment to sin. Because of our attachments to sin, we may find ourselves falling into the same sins over and over. Do you ever go to Confession and feel like you are just confessing exactly what you did last time? If so, you are not alone.

Temporal Effects of Sin

As I said before, there is no private sin. Our sins affect our soul, our relationship with God, our relationship with others, and our relationship with the created order. For more serious sins, these effects are sometimes irreversible.

For example, if negligence or passions lead to murder or dismemberment, there is no immediate solution for this injustice. These are rather extreme examples, but we could think of the sins of detraction and calumny. Detraction, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is “the unjust damaging of another’s good name by the revelation of some fault or crime of which that other is really guilty or at any rate is seriously believed to be guilty by the defamer.” Calumny is the same, but the calumniator knows what they are saying is false.

In both cases (detraction and calumny), the third party has a tarnished view of the person being discussed, whose good name and reputation are called into question. These are sins against charity and justice. The tarnished reputation is one of the temporal effects of this sin, as is the effect on the soul of the person committing the sin as well as the person taking part. Everyone has been wounded.

Just like in civil court, restitution is demanded by sin. When we sin, we need to do everything we can to restore a sense of justice. Moved with sorrow for our actions, we seek restitution. Primarily through the Sacrament of Penance, we are restored to relationship with God and then pray and work to restore our relationship with others. In the Sacrament of Penance, the sin is forgiven, but these temporal effects of sin remain.

For example, if you are playing baseball in the street and hit the ball through your neighbor’s windows, what should you do? Well, first you feel contrition. Then, you go and apologize to your neighbor. Hopefully, your neighbor forgives you (God always forgives us, by the way). But is that it? No! We need to pay to replace the window. We need to make restitution.

Guilt and Shame

Guilt and shame are part of the effects of sin. Guilt can really be a gift that moves us to repentance. Shame, on the other hand, has limited value. It might be helpful to think of guilt as conviction and shame as condemnation.

Condemnation is from Satan. It is unhelpful and contrary to the mercy of God. Condemnation and shame seek to have us wallow in our sinfulness and sit with the pain of having done wrong. However, there is no way out of this. Satan wants us to come further into sin by adding the sin of despair.

On the other hand, the Holy Spirit convicts us to repent and sin no more. So, guilt moves us to feel sorrow for sin so that we can hand it over to our loving God who forgives us and heals our brokenness.

The Gift of Conscience and the Certainty of Redemption

All of this about sin is what we could call the “Bad News.” But Jesus came to share with us the “Good News.” The Bad News is that our first parents fell from grace and the natural order was negatively affected. Then, inclined to sin as we are, we personally choose to sin and disobey God in so many ways. But, Jesus Christ, our God made Flesh, came to heal, preach, teach, and offer His life as a ransom for our sinfulness. He died on the Cross and rose from the dead so that we might live. He broke the bonds of sin and death and gave us true freedom.

In our freedom, He gave us the ability to form our conscience, to know right from wrong based on what He has revealed to us. God wants us to listen to our conscience, but He also expects us to form our conscience in Him and in the mind of the Church.

Following what the Church has taught to be revealed by God, we plant ourselves on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. In Him is the fullness of redemption. So, no matter how far into sin we stray, He is the solution for our brokenness. He alone can heal us and make us whole. In Him, is the certainty of redemption, if we love Him and keep His commandments.

Do not despair. Do not grow weary. Do not be afraid. So many times, the Sacred Scriptures remind us to put our trust in God and hold fast to Him. If you find yourself moved by your conscience to repent of sins you have committed, then repent! God’s forgiveness and love is always ready for you.

 

 

 

 

10 Lent Quotes From Pope Francis To Celebrate His 10th Anniversary As Pope

by Becky Roach

 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope on March 13, 2013, during the season of Lent. Each year, during this season of the Church, Pope Francis provides wisdom and encouragement for our Lenten journey. Today, we present a Lent quote from each year of Pope Francis’ papacy to inspire and guide us on our Lenten journey.

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2013

Living Holy Week means entering ever more deeply into the logic of God, into the logic of the Cross, which is not primarily that of suffering and death, but rather that of love and of the gift of self which brings life. It means entering into the logic of the Gospel. Following and accompanying Christ, staying with him, demands “coming out of ourselves”, requires us to be outgoing; to come out of ourselves, out of a dreary way of living faith that has become a habit, out of the temptation to withdraw into our own plans which end by shutting out God’s creative action.

God came out of himself to come among us, he pitched his tent among us to bring to us his mercy that saves and gives hope. Nor must we be satisfied with staying in the pen of the 99 sheep if we want to follow him and to remain with him; we too must “go out” with him to seek the lost sheep, the one that has strayed the furthest. Be sure to remember: coming out of ourselves, just as Jesus, just as God came out of himself in Jesus and Jesus came out of himself for all of us.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2014

“Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”

- Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2015

Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each community and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2016

 

 

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2017

Dear friends, Lent is the favourable season for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in his word, in the sacraments and in our neighbour. The Lord, who overcame the deceptions of the Tempter during the forty days in the desert, shows us the path we must take. May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God’s word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need. 

Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2018

 

 

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2019

Let us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain! Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus’ Pasch. Let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ’s victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation.

– Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2020

Christian joy flows from listening to, and accepting, the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This kerygma sums up the mystery of a love “so real, so true, so concrete, that it invites us to a relationship of openness and fruitful dialogue” (Christus Vivit, 117). Whoever believes this message rejects the lie that our life is ours to do with as we will. Rather, life is born of the love of God our Father, from his desire to grant us life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). If we listen instead to the tempting voice of the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44), we risk sinking into the abyss of absurdity, and experiencing hell here on earth, as all too many tragic events in the personal and collective human experience sadly bear witness.

– Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2021

In our Lenten journey towards Easter, let us remember the One who “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). During this season of conversion, let us renew our faith, draw from the “living water” of hope, and receive with open hearts the love of God, who makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. At the Easter vigil, we will renew our baptismal promises and experience rebirth as new men and women by the working of the Holy Spirit. This Lenten journey, like the entire pilgrimage of the Christian life, is even now illumined by the light of the resurrection, which inspires the thoughts, attitudes and decisions of the followers of Christ.

Fasting, prayer and almsgiving, as preached by Jesus (cf. Mt 6:1-18), enable and express our conversion. The path of poverty and self-denial (fasting), concern and loving care for the poor (almsgiving), and childlike dialogue with the Father (prayer) make it possible for us to live lives of sincere faith, living hope and effective charity.

- Pope Francis

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2022

Let us not grow tired of praying. Jesus taught us to “pray always without becoming weary” ( Lk 18:1). We need to pray because we need God. Thinking that we need nothing other than ourselves is a dangerous illusion. If the pandemic has heightened the awareness of our own personal and social fragility, may this Lent allow us to experience the consolation provided by faith in God, without whom we cannot stand firm (cf. Is 7:9). No one attains salvation alone, since we are all in the same boat, amid the storms of history; [2] and certainly no one reaches salvation without God, for only the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ triumphs over the dark waters of death. Faith does not spare us life’s burdens and tribulations, but it does allow us to face them in union with God in Christ, with the great hope that does not disappoint, whose pledge is the love that God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:1-5).

Let us not grow tired of uprooting evil from our lives. May the corporal fasting to which Lent calls us fortify our spirit for the battle against sin. Let us not grow tired of asking for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, knowing that God never tires of forgiving. [3] Let us not grow tired of fighting against concupiscence, that weakness which induces to selfishness and all evil, and finds in the course of history a variety of ways to lure men and women into sin (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 166). One of these is addiction to the digital media, which impoverishes human relationships. Lent is a propitious time to resist these temptations and to cultivate instead a more integral form of human communication ( ibid., 43) made up of “authentic encounters” ( ibid., 50), face-to-face and in person.

Let us not grow tired of doing good in active charity towards our neighbours. During this Lent, may we practise almsgiving by giving joyfully (cf. 2 Cor 9:7). God who “supplies seed to the sower and bread for food” (2 Cor 9:10) enables each of us not only to have food to eat, but also to be generous in doing good to others. While it is true that we have our entire life to sow goodness, let us take special advantage of this Lenten season to care for those close to us and to reach out to our brothers and sisters who lie wounded along the path of life (cf. Lk 10:25-37). Lent is a favourable time to seek out – and not to avoid – those in need; to reach out – and not to ignore – those who need a sympathetic ear and a good word; to visit – and not to abandon – those who are lonely. Let us put into practice our call to do good to all, and take time to love the poor and needy, those abandoned and rejected, those discriminated against and marginalized (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 193).

Pope Francis Lent Quote 2023

Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcoming our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross. This is precisely what Peter and the other disciples needed to do. To deepen our knowledge of the Master, to fully understand and embrace the mystery of his salvation, accomplished in total self-giving inspired by love, we must allow ourselves to be taken aside by him and to detach ourselves from mediocrity and vanity. We need to set out on the journey, an uphill path that, like a mountain trek, requires effort, sacrifice and concentration.

- Pope Francis

Why Every Friday Is Like A Mini Good Friday

by Will Wright

What is Good Friday?

Good Friday is the second day of the Sacred Triduum, in between Holy Thursday and Easter Vigil. Good Friday is the commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. It is always three days before Easter, which marks the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead!

Why Do We Call Good Friday “Good”?

It might be confusing why we call this horrible day “good.” This term comes from an obsolete use of the term in English which means “pious” or “holy.” For hundreds of years in the Latin Church it was called Feria sexta in Parasceve which means “Friday of Preparation” and then after the 1955 Holy Week reform it was renamed Feria sexta in Passione et Morte Domini which means “Friday of the Passion and Death of the Lord.” In the current Latin edition of the Missal, it is Feria sexta in Passione Domini or “Friday of the Passion of the Lord.” ‘

One of the strangest things about Good Friday is that Mass is not offered anywhere in the world. Tabernacles are empty, with the doors wide open. The altar is stripped of cloths and candles. And the holy water receptacles are empty. It is surreal, empty, and solemn. Jesus Christ, God made man, has died on the Cross, and He has been laid in the tomb. (Of course, we know the rest of the story: death could not hold Him down and He rose from the dead three days later!!)

Penance Is The Answer

There is a distinction in the teachings of the Church between forgiveness and communion. God forgives us when we ask with true sorrow for our sins, but there are still eternal consequences to our actions. Our relationship with God can still need healing in terms of conformity to Him and communion with Him. Even after we confess our sins, we can still have attachments to certain sins, for example.

The Lord helps us to grow in cooperation with His grace through the gift and opportunity of doing penance. Followers of Christ are called to do formal penance, such as fasting, and informal penance such as intentionally going out of the way to be kind to someone. In doing penance, whether formal or informal, we are uniting ourselves to superabundant merits won by Christ on the Cross.

For penance to have its full effect in ourselves and to help us grow in holiness, this intentionality is necessary. When we act with Christ, we are drawing nearer to Him just as He is already near to us. Doing penance is our answer to the justice of God. We know that we are sinners in need of grace, and we unite our thoughts, prayers, and actions to communion with Him.

Penance can be done formally or informally, but there are certain times when the whole Church is called to collective penance. Canon Law teaches that “the penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent (Canon 1250).” This is why we say that every Friday is a mini Good Friday!

Fasting and Abstinence

In the early life of the Church, there was a fast before every major feast or important event. Historically, fasting comes from the Latin statio which means to stand watch or on guard. Another type of fast is called abstinence which pertains to abstaining from meat or fats. In the second case, this is an act of self-control. For the first meaning of fasting, the idea is in waiting, watching, and anticipating something.

There is a fast in place for the Holy Eucharist. The faithful fast from everything except water and medicine at least one hour prior to receiving Holy Communion. In the past, this fast extended to midnight on the previous day. This is where we get the term breakfast because, after receiving Holy Communion, we are breaking the fast.

Today, there are two days of required fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On these two days, in the Latin Rite, we may eat one small meal and two other small meals that when combined are not equal to a normal size meal. This is obligatory for those who are 18 years old up to 59 ½ years old. For those younger than 18 and older than 60, the fast is optional and based on medical fitness to do so.

Abstinence from meat is required on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays for those above the age of 14 years old. Yes, you read that correctly. Canon Law says, “Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday (Can. 1251).”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) teach the following:

“Christ died for our salvation on Friday. Gratefully remembering this, Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him. This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church.”

THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS (USCCB) 

Put simply: Christ gave up His Flesh for the life of the world on Friday and so we give up flesh for Him on Friday.

The USCCB recommends that the faithful continue meatless Fridays throughout the year, but it is no longer “binding under pain of sin.” Outside of Lent, the faithful may eat meat, but they must do some other penance in its stead.

3 Questions To Examine Your Heart During Lent

by Fr. Ian Van Heusen

 

Fr. Ian VanHeusen presents a gospel reflection and spiritual exercise on the Gospel of John 3:14-21, when Jesus proclaims Himself the Light of the World. Throughout the Lenten season, Father encourages us to invest in prayer of self-examination, and he provides practical assistance in the method of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises as a pathway toward greater spiritual freedom.

We invite you to watch Father’s video, then prayerfully read the Gospel and reflection, and work your way through the Exercises. We pray that this might help you in your apostolate, your family, your classroom, or personally… to prepare for and more deeply experience Sunday’s Mass, and to better integrate the Sacrament and the readings into your daily life.

 

 

3 Questions for Examining Your Heart as You Progress Through the Penitential Season of Lent

1. Has your fasting and penance brought you joy?

Are the rigors of your Lenten prayer and practices becoming a source of a deeper excitement for and engagement in life? This should be the case!

2. Has examining you heart led to greater stillness and availability?

Are you becoming less selfish and more attentive to the people around you – loved ones, family members, friends, strangers?

3. Have you grown in mercy? 

Patience in others’ sins and faults should be growing in your heart as a result of your own intentional prayer life and penances.

Spiritual Exercise

This week, we focus on the Three Powers of the Soul, developing the daily habit of daily examination of our heart and surrendering our full selves to God by way of the Suscipe Prayer.

*Direct quotes of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises taken from the Louis J. Puhl, SJ Translation.*

The Suscipe Prayer is essentially a complete surrender to God of what St. Ignatius of Loyola called the Three Powers of the Soul, namely the intellect, the memory, and the will. An unimpeded invitation to God into our efforts toward the good, and toward the habits of self-examination we’ve been cultivating with the Spiritual Exercises.

Having developed the daily habit of the Particular and General Examinations of Conscience based on the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins, we now undertake a surrender of our whole selves to God, especially including the weaknesses we’ve identified in these examinations of conscience.

The purpose of our fasting, prayer and almsgiving, not to mention undertaking the rigors of the Spiritual Exercises of self-examination, is to prepare ourselves to be a better gift – both in our prayer before God, our life of faith, and in the way we give of ourselves to the people and duties of our daily life.

You may wish to refer back to weeks 1, 2 and 3, as the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are meant to be a progression:

• Week 1: Praying on the Ten Commandments and the Seven Capital (or Deadly) Sins
• Week 2: Particular Examination of Conscience
• Week 3: General Examination of Conscience

2. Has examining you heart led to greater stillness and availability?

Are you becoming less selfish and more attentive to the people around you – loved ones, family members, friends, strangers?

3. Have you grown in mercy? 

Patience in others’ sins and faults should be growing in your heart as a result of your own intentional prayer life and penances.

Spiritual Exercise

This week, we focus on the Three Powers of the Soul, developing the daily habit of daily examination of our heart and surrendering our full selves to God by way of the Suscipe Prayer.

The Suscipe Prayer is essentially a complete surrender to God of what St. Ignatius of Loyola called the Three Powers of the Soul, namely the intellect, the memory, and the will. An unimpeded invitation to God into our efforts toward the good, and toward the habits of self-examination we’ve been cultivating with the Spiritual Exercises.

Having developed the daily habit of the Particular and General Examinations of Conscience based on the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins, we now undertake a surrender of our whole selves to God, especially including the weaknesses we’ve identified in these examinations of conscience.

The purpose of our fasting, prayer and almsgiving, not to mention undertaking the rigors of the Spiritual Exercises of self-examination, is to prepare ourselves to be a better gift – both in our prayer before God, our life of faith, and in the way we give of ourselves to the people and duties of our daily life.

You may wish to refer back to weeks 1, 2 and 3, as the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are meant to be a progression:

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Suscipe Prayer:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.

 

On the Three Powers of the Soul

Method

…Before entering on the prayer I recollect myself for a while, and either seated or walking up and down, as may seem better, I will consider where I am going, and for what purpose. The same direction should be observed at the beginning of all the methods of prayer.

Prayer

A preparatory prayer should be made, for example, I ask God our Lord for grace to know how I have failed in [surrendering my intellect], and also for grace and help to amend for the future. I will beg for a perfect understanding of them in order to observe them better and glorify and praise the Divine Majesty more

Method

In this first method of prayer I should consider and think over the First Power of the Soul (intellect), asking myself, how I have observed it, and in what I have failed. I will use as a measure of this consideration the space of time it takes to recite three times the Our Father and the Hail Mary. If during this time I find faults I have committed, I will ask forgiveness and say an Our Father. This same method will be followed with each of the [subsequent powers of the soul].

Notes

If one comes to the consideration of a Commandment [or power of the soul] against which he is not in the habit of committing any sins, it is not necessary to delay so long on it. According as he finds that he sins more or less against a Commandment, he should devote more or less time to the examination and consideration of it. The same rule should be observed with regard to the Capital Sins.

After one has finished the consideration of all the [three powers of the soul] as indicated above, and has accused himself of his faults, and asked for grace and help to amend for the future, he should close with a colloquy to God our Lord, adapted to the subject matter.