Our Lenten journey is one to deeper relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ, who
gives Himself to us. He gives Himself in an “extreme” way on the Cross. From the outside, the Cross is tragedy. From the inside, from the divine vantage point, because it is divine Love poured forth, the Cross is power and wisdom. St. Paul says this in this Sunday’s second reading (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Let us pray for an increase in faith, that we might truly proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. I offer you three quotes about the Cross, for your Lenten meditation: God created through love and for love. God did not create anything except love itself, and the means to love. He created love in all its forms. He created beings capable of love from all possible distances. Because no other could do it, he himself went to the greatest possible distance, the infinite distance. This infinite distance between God and God, this supreme tearing apart, this agony beyond all others, this marvel of love, is the crucifixion. Simone Weil (+1943), French social activist and mystic How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return. St. Theodore the Studite (+826), Byzantine Greek monk There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world. Pope John Paul II Journeying with you to deeper relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ, Fr. Dominique fellow-pilgrim
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THE REV. DOMINIQUE PERIDANS
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