Dear faithful guards of honor,
Here we are at the dawn of Holy Week. Far from everything we had planned or imagined, we will experience it in a new way. Perhaps this is an opportunity to ponder particularly on the state of mind of Jesus during the many days leading up to his Passion. The final advice to his apostles was probably of particular gravity. Each second, each minute that separated him from the Cross has immense value, exceptional significance for the apostles but for us too. Let us reread his last words, his last gestures, his last miracles … While having longed for the last moment to give his life to save us, Jesus Himself also experienced the depths of anguish! But in the end, He defeated death!
Since, despite ourselves, we are given the opportunity, let us make our hours of confinement a perpetual prayer united to that of Jesus to his Father!
May the Lord protect you and bless you
Geneviève Vignes
Perpetual prayer!
Who will say the value, the fruitfulness, the merit of prayer? One can neither imagine its power nor its range. It opens the doors of Heaven, brings down mercy and it inclines God towards him who prays. What is meant by “prayer” is not uninterrupted mental or vocal prayer, no. It is a gentle and easy direction of our mind directed towards God alone. As the traveler follows the North Star to avoid the pitfalls, our soul must seek the Lord to orient its life.
It is still necessary to desire to pray! Before even praying, it is often necessary to suppress the self-love which animates us so much we are convinced that we can do everything without God. Indeed, perpetual prayer is nothing other than making ourselves present in the very presence of God at the heart of our lives. It is enough for that to remember Him frequently in our days, to love it filially and to address Him in all simplicity. All of this constitutes perpetual prayer. Likewise, offering our sufferings, our joys and doing all our actions in order to please him, are all continual prayers that prove the sincerity of our love. Prayer is the necessary and indispensable food for spiritual life. The breathing of our soul is the very spirit of prayer. Our soul, immaterial substance, born of the breath of God, subsists only on the sole condition of going to draw its life from the divine Essence. Beyond the formulas that we mechanically rehash, even if these can be a support for raising our spirit towards God, let us simplify our prayers to transform all that we live in a perpetual prayer! (Sr Marie du Sacré Coeur Bernaud)