RESTORING THE SACRED . . . The Reality Of The Sacred Passion
The Lenten season comes each year as a veritable retreat for the Church throughout the world, a particularly “acceptable time” (2 Cor. 6:2) for all of us to begin anew the pursuit of perfection in the spiritual life. As in a typical retreat, that pursuit opens with the acknowledgment of our need for repentance and the confession of our sins, both fostered by our acts of self-denial that are an essential feature of this liturgical season. The cycle of weekday readings for the Masses of Lent go a long way in spiritually directing and nourishing our efforts to repent and follow our Lord more faithfully. Yet Lent is likewise a season of preparation for the most important liturgical rites of the year, those of Holy Week, in which we enter deeply into each step of our Lord’s journey to the Cross. Of course, the Passion is an integral part of each day in the life of the Church. Each and every Mass re-presents the Sacrifice
