Dear brothers and sisters,

Please find attached a Spiritual Exercise to do during Palm Sunday. Let us find in this Exercise a way of drawing closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Good Lent

Roman Order of the Redemptive Mother

(Ordre Romain De la Mère Rédemptrice)

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2021 Lent Spiritual Exercise – 22 March to 26 March 2021

1. Spiritual exercise is a gift from Saint Ignatius of Loyola to the Universal Church.
2. It is a religious practice which prompts the being to strive for the perfection of the soul using all possible means: either through meditation, or through contemplation, or through prayer.
3. Spiritual exercises are different ways of preparing and disposing of your soul to let go of everything that hinders your salvation.
4. To perpetuate this Tradition, we invite you before Holy Week, to meditate on The Sorrowful Sorrowful Mysteries, for a period of 5 days, from Monday March 22 to Friday March 26, 2021.
5. This spiritual exercise will aim to bring us closer to Our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered terribly during the Holy Passion.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Course of the Spiritual Exercise

Place on your small oratory: a cross, the image of the Mystery to be meditated on according to the day and a lighted candle.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

• Let us begin our meditation by asking the Holy Spirit to descend into our souls, to calm our thoughts and to bring peace within us.
• Come Holy Spirit, Come through the Powerful Intercession of the Immaculate Heart Mary, Your Beloved Bride.
• Come Holy Spirit, Come through the Powerful Intercession of the Immaculate Heart Mary, bring us Peace.
• Come Holy Spirit, Come through the Powerful Intercession of the Immaculate Heart Mary, renew everything.
• Before the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us take the time to examine our conscience, to look at the state of our soul, to accuse our faults, to regret them and to ask for forgiveness (time of silence + reflection).

Confiteor

I confess to Almighty God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to Saint Michael the Archangel, to Saint John the Baptist, to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and to the other Apostles, to all the Saints and to you my Father that I  have sinned a lot by thought, word, deed and omission.  It’s my fault, It’s my fault, It’s my very big fault (hitting his chest).  This is why I beg the Blessed Virgin Mary always Virgin, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and the other Apostles, all the Saints, and you my Father to pray for me the Lord  our God.

Act of contrition

My God, I regret very much that I have offended You, because You are infinitely Good and you dislike sin.  I take the firm resolution with the help of Your Holy Grace to no longer offend You and to do penance

• Kyrie Eleison (x3) Christe Eleison (x3) Kyrie Eleison (x3)
• Time of silence while looking at the Image of the Mystery of the day (short moment)
• Reading of the Bible extract (attached)
• Reflection (attached)
• Deep meditation (long time)
• Recite ten
• Reading of the meditation (attached)
• Singing

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Monday 22 March 2021

1st Sorrowful Mystery

The Agony of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Olives.

Through this Mystery, we ask for contrition for our sins.

Passage of the Bible: Matthew 26: 30-56

After singing the psalms, they set out for the Mount of Olives.  Then Jesus said to them: “Tonight I will be a stumbling block for you all;  for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.  But, once risen, I will go before you into Galilee.  »Speaking, Peter said to him:« If all fall because of You, I will not fall.  “Jesus answered him:” Amen, I say to you: this very night, before the rooster crows, you will have denied Me three times.  Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You.”  And all the disciples said the same.

So Jesus comes with them to an area called Gethsemane and says to them, “Sit here, while I go there to pray.  He took Peter, along with James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to feel sadness and anguish.  He then said to them: “My soul is sad to death.  Stay here and watch with Me.  Going a little further, He fell face down on the ground in prayer, and He said, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup pass away from Me!”  However, not as Me, I want, but as You, You want.  Then He returns to His Disciples and finds them asleep;  He said to Peter, “So you didn’t have the strength to stay with Me for just an hour?  Watch and pray, so as not to enter into temptation;  the spirit is fiery, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, He walked away and prayed, for the second time;  He said: “My Father, if this cup cannot pass without my drinking it, then Your Will be done!”  Returning to the disciples, he again found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy with sleep.

Leaving them, again He walked away and prayed for the third time, repeating the same words.  Then He comes back to the disciples and says to them, “From now on you can sleep and rest.  Behold, the hour is near when the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.  Stand up !  Let’s go !  Here is near, the one who delivers me.  “

Jesus was still speaking when Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, and with him a great multitude armed with swords and staves, sent by the high priests and the elders of the people.  The one delivering him had given them a sign: “He is he whom I will kiss: stop him.  “Immediately, approaching Jesus, he said to him:” Hail, Rabbi!  And he kissed her.  Jesus said to him: “My friend, what you have come to do, do it!  “

So they came over, got their hands on Jesus and stopped him.  One of those who were with Jesus, putting his hand on his sword, drew it, smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, “Take in your sword, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  Do you believe that I cannot call on my Father?  He would immediately put at My Disposal more than twelve Legions of Angels.  But then, how would the scriptures come to pass that it must be so?

At that time, Jesus said to the crowds, “Am I then a bandit, that you have come to take hold of Me with swords and staves?”  Every day in the Temple, I was sitting teaching, and you didn’t stop me.  But all this happened in order for the writings of the Prophets to be fulfilled.  So all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

Reflection

DO WE ALWAYS THINK OF PRAYING?

WHY IS OUR SPIRITUAL LAZINESS STILL PRESENT?

HOW MANY TIMES DID WE NOT KEEP OUR PROMISES?

Meditation:

Meditation of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

He began to pray, and, repeating the same prayer three times, He entered into agony. And then we saw Him, if He is permitted to speak thus, weep not only with His eyes but as of all the members of His Body, in order to purify with His tears His entire Body: the Church!

Brothers, the tears of Christ bring shame and pain in me.  I was having fun in the public square … What am I going to do then?  Continue to indulge in my games?  Make fun of His Tears?  Yes, if I am an idle fool, I will not follow him and mingle my tears with his.  The Son of God sympathizes with our evils, and He weeps;  and you, O man, who is afflicted with it, would you laugh?

What rain of tears will be enough to water the sterility of my soul?  With what tears will I irrigate the barren soil of my vineyard?  All its branches have dried up because of the aridity;  they wither away without fruit for lack of moisture.  Merciful Jesus, You are your witness: may the bundles of these branches be consumed every day in the fire of my crushed heart, as a sacrifice for you!

Now I find in the thought of my ills and in the remembrance of the tears of my God, a very ample reason to reflect on the ways that I am and to turn my steps towards His Commandments.

But how great would it have been, Lord Jesus, if the hour for which You came had found you standing and fearless, since You had the power to give Your Life without anyone being able to take it from You?  Yes, was He not much more glorious than those to whom Your Death gave life receive strength from Your Tremor, from Your Sadness joy, from Your Despondency ardor, from Your Trouble tranquility, from  Your Desolation the Consolation?

I perceive something more striking still: The Love which is strong as death shook him to such an extent that an Angel of God comforted Christ.  Who does He comfort?  Well, the One who turned water into wine with a gesture, the One who, by simply touching the leper, put his leprosy to flight, the one for whom the sea became solid under his feet, the one whose voice rose from the dead.  dead, the One who upholds all with his mighty word.  By Him everything was made, by Him the universe subsists, and the Angel himself.  An Angel therefore comforts Him, and even He is incapable of understanding the glory of the One whom He comforts!

So I no longer despair.  Lord, even though the afflictions that I am suffering are excessive, even though I lack courage, even though I long for “this chalice to pass away from me”.  No, I say, I no longer despair, provided however that I also know how to add: “however, not as I want, but as you want”!  I do not refuse the trials even though I would need to be comforted!  How can I fail to recognize in my cry the very cry of the Savior, and I will despair of salvation?

(Texts from the sermons, homilies, letters and writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)

Song: Ave Ave Ave Maria (aria from Avé Maria de Fatima)

Jesus is dying

And Her Divine Heart

Before God breaks

For the sinful man.