From the desk of the pastor for March 2, 2025

The Lord be with you! As we get ready for Lent, we should reflect on the purpose of penance and how suffering can be redemptive. Although God is always assisting us, we sometimes do not feel or notice His help.

Last week we introduced the terms "consolation" and "desolation" to denote when we feel good or bad in our journey to God. Usually, we can discern God's will for us by following spiritual consolations. When we experience desolations, however, it is far more confusing and challenging. When prayer seems difficult or empty, we question if we are praying correctly or whether praying is even worth it.

Why would God not make us feel happy every time we pray? To purify our intentions and strengthen our souls. When the soul first comes to God, He usually consoles the soul with many small consolations to encourage further prayer. All too often, however, we get attached to these consolations and will pray mostly to feel good. By allowing us to feel His absence in prayer, the Lord breaks this attachment and deepens our ability to love Him.

Just as desolations can help us to become less attached to our feelings in prayer, penance can aid us in becoming detached in our daily lives. We can easily become too attached to certain goods on account of concupiscence. Concupiscence is the wound of Original Sin that disposes us to like created things too much or like lesser goods in preference to greater ones. For example, I really enjoy Guinness and plan on having a couple on St. Patrick's Day. What would happen if I let this attraction control me? Drunkenness. We can easily see in alcoholics that their desire for alcohol becomes so strong that their wills could not control it.

Moderating our enjoyment of goods is not penance but temperance. Denying ourselves a good that we are due is penance. Now, it is often a good idea for Lent to start with practicing temperance for goods that we have become too attached to, but we should not confuse that practice with acts of self denial as such. Nevertheless, the first acts of temperance might be painful and distressing.

Saying "no" to what we want is necessary to train ourselves - our emotions, our habits, and our thinking - for when suffering comes that we cannot escape. When we speak of the "Cross" in our lives, we are referring to non-voluntary suffering that we must encounter. If we never do penance, we will not be ready for what that suffering does to us. Penance does not make accepting our Crosses easy - just much easier than it would have otherwise been.

In Lent we have the great opportunity for intense spiritual training. If we have an unhealthy attachment to some good (social media, chocolate, fancy dining), Lent is a great time to temper this desire. In denying what we want right now, we learn that God will give us His strength now and forever.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John