From the desk of the pastor for Feb. 16, 2025

The Lord be with you! As we prepare for Lent, many of us are already wondering what we should give up. After all, isn’t Lent just about suffering? Not really. Understanding the spiritual exercises of Lent well will help us to use that season well and advance in love throughout our lives.

During Lent we prepare for Easter by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Together these three spiritual exercises enable us to grow in God’s grace by seeking God, denying ourselves, and detaching ourselves from the world. A latter article will go over these activities more closely as spiritual exercises, but for now we need to understand their overall purpose: uprooting sin and its effect within us so that grace can grow within us.

Another name for growing in grace is imitating Christ. Yet another name for it is the interior life. By Baptism we are called to be other Christs - we are adopted by God as His sons and daughters. In Confirmation and Eucharist this call is perfected such that we become truly what we receive. As a Church we put so much effort into forming and raising our children so that they have all the resources and opportunities to become the saints that God desires. All too often, however, we stop trying to imitate Christ seriously once we become adults. What was meant as preparation becomes our only touching point.

The Fathers of the Church actually noticed a progression in the interior life that has three parts: Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive. Also called the Beginning, Middle, and Advanced stages, these three ages of our interior life describe how we relate to God and how we exercise the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Briefly, in the Beginning stage we reject mortal sin and make mental prayer a central part of our life. In the Middle stage we reject venial sins habitually and our mental prayer deepens to become partially infused (more on that in another article). Lastly, in the Final stage we demonstrate heroic virtue, get rid of our faults, and have the prayer of union. Tragically, most Catholics (and most Christians) never advance successfully from the Purgative way to the Illuminative and become stuck.

As your pastor it is my job to help. As a Confessor it is my great joy to give God’s mercy and good advice to all. No one can cause someone else to become a saint; each of us can only cooperate with God to advance ourselves. We have priests to help us learn from our mistakes and take courage that God will perfect us if we let Him.

As we think about Lent and our journey to Easter, let us reflect on our spiritual lives. How has God revealed Himself to us? What parts of ourselves do we share with God? What parts of ourselves do we try to hide? May we learn well that God loves us and always will.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John