Each year our Holy Father writes a message for Lent, giving a theme for reflection during our journey to Easter. This year’s message addresses our modern tendency to indifference to the needs of others. This theme could not be more timely, since the Culture of Death has roared its ugly head in this new year in the form of efforts to legalize physician assisted suicide in as many U.S. states as possible.
Assisted suicide is obviously an important and troubling issue to us Little Sisters of the Poor. As we begin Lent we beg you to join us in praying that euthanasia and assisted suicide will not gain a foothold in our country.
Each week during Lent we will be sending a reflection on this theme of indifference, especially as it relates to caring for the sick and infirm. We hope that these passages will help to inform your mind and form your heart to be more like Christ’s, a heart which is merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed or indifferent, but open and compassionate toward those less fortunate.
God is not indifferent to us
(excerpt from Pope Francis’ Lenten message)
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…. God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all.
Do you believe that God calls you by name, that he cares for you and seeks you out?
Do you believe that you have a place in his heart?
It is natural to fear illness and death, but believing that our lives are in God’s hands, no matter what happens, can lessen our fears and give us hope.
A Prayer to Calm Our Fears
When the signs of age begin to make my body
and still more, when they touch my mind,
when the ill that is to diminish me and
carry me off, strikes from without,
or is born within me,
When the painful moment comes in which
I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am ill,
or growing old, and above all,
at that last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and I am absolutely passive
within the hands of the great unknown forces
that have formed me,
In all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is You
(provided only that my faith is strong enough).
You are painfully parting the fibers of my being
in order to penetrate
to the very marrow of my substance
and bear me away within Yourself.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 – 1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest. His sister was a Little Sister of the Poor who died as a missionary in China in 1911 at the age of 32.)
To read the complete text of Pope Francis’ Lenten message, click here.
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