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Thursday, March 21, 2013

What the Pope said at the beginning of Lent

This is taken from Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ's talk to the priests, the consecrated, and the laity of his Archdiocese at the beginning of Lent - read it all on the blog "Whispers in the Loggia" found on the side.



Rend your hearts, not your garments, superficial and egoistic prayer which does not reach the depth of our life to allow it to be touched by God.

Rend your hearts to say with the Psalmist: “we have sinned.” “Sin is the wound of the soul: Oh poor wounded one, recognize your Physician! Show him the wounds of your guilt. And given that our secret thoughts are not hidden from Him, make him hear the groan of your heart. Move Him to compassion with your tears, with your insistence. Importune Him! May He hear your sighs, make your pain reach Him so that, in the end, He can say to you: The Lord has forgiven your sin” (Saint Gregory the Great). This is the reality of our human condition. This is the truth that can bring us closer to genuine reconciliation with God and with men. It is not about discrediting self-esteem but about penetrating the depth of our hearts and of assuming the mystery of suffering and pain which has bound us for centuries, thousands of years, always.


Rend your hearts, so that through that crack we can really look at ourselves.


Rend your hearts, open your hearts, because only in a broken and open heart can the merciful love of God enter, who loves and heals us.


Rend your hearts says the prophet, and Paul asks us almost on his knees to “be reconciled with God.” To change one’s way of living is the sign and fruit of this broken and reconciled heart by a love that surpasses us.


This is the invitation, given the many wounds that harm us and that can lead us to the temptation of hardening us: Rend your hearts to experience in silent and serene prayer the gentleness of God’s tenderness.


Rend your hearts to be able to love with the love with which we are loved, to console with the consolation that consoles us and to share what we have received.

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