The Founder of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, Blessed Louis Brisson, will guide us for the first week of Lent.
Sunday March 9:
“My friends.. we must keep Lent…We are obliged to perform the penitential acts that are within our reach.
How, then, shall we do penance? Undoubtedly, if we could keep Lent in the way prescribed by the Church,that would be the very best kind of Lent, the best penance we could take up. Health permitting, fasting will bring peace to the soul, it will make you really happy.
Your conscience must be your guide in deciding just what you are able to do.”
Monday March 10:
“There are different kinds of abstinence. I am going to suggest to you a very particular kind of abstinence. St. Peter said: “Have a share in the sufferings of Christ.”
Tuesday March 11:
“There are 3 ways of sharing with Our Lord, to have a share in His Will by uniting our will with His, to have a share in His Sacred Body- that’s Holy Communion, and finally to have a share in His sufferings and Passion and this is when we accept all the trials and troubles and sufferings that come our way in union with Our Lord in His Passion.”
Wednesday March 12:
” Let this be an important part of your resolutions for the day, to perform an act of mortification at table, in your room..we must take on our share of everything Our Lord had to endure.”
Thursday March 13:
” I wish you would keep in mind these two ways of doing penance; mortify yourself at every meal and abstain from your own self-will by exact, faithful and loving obedience to the Will of God.”
Source: Lenten Mortifications, March 3, 1897, Pere Brisson’s Conferences
Friday March 14:
“We unite ourselves with Our Lord’s sufferings from the first moment of our morning’s meditation by going straight to Him for one day’s preparation. Whenever one of the great mysteries impresses you in a particular way, relax and meditate on it leisurely. We must be most careful about realizing the things which Our Lord sends into our souls.”
Source: Passiontide,Mar 22, 1899, Pere Brisson’s Conferences
Saturday March 15:
” All the while we are getting ready for the Paschal solemnities,let’s not let the mysteries of the Passion slip by without reaping a harvest from them. Feed yourself on these things and you will be well nourished. Make them the subject of your meditation, think them over seriously, pray about them.”
Source: Holy Week, April 7, 1897, Pere Brisson’s Conferences