By Robert Ballecer, SJ

More than just a remembrance, Lent challenges us to recall the sacrifice of Christ, then respond to that sacrifice by increasing our faith: truly seeing those around us, taking in the world beyond the bubbles of our daily lives, becoming more open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and listening to its call. Lent finds us where we are and, if we are willing to let it, brings us closer to God that we may build His Kingdom on Earth: conversion.

By Fr. John D. Whitney, S.J.

For the Jesuits, devotion to the Sacred Heart seemed consistent with the experience of St. Ignatius, whose vision of Christ at La Storta had not been of a triumphant king, but of a condemned man carrying his cross. This was the Christ who called Ignatius into Companionship: a human Christ, moved by divine love and pierced for the sake of those he would redeem. In the Sacred Heart, the Jesuits found a devotion that expressed this combination of divinity and humanity, of suffering and love, of comfort and mission. Consequently, as the Jesuits spread across the world, so too did the devotion to the Sacred Heart, becoming one of the principal forms of prayer for the entire Church.

By Dr. Bryan Thatcher

The encounter between Mary Magdalene and Jesus has been called the encounter “between misery and mercy.” She initially washed His feet out of contrition, and after His death, out of respect and adoration. She stayed with Our Blessed Mother at the Crucifixion.