of St Margaret Mary
Source: carnet-de-careme-2017-vf-1-lg.pdf (sacrecoeur-paray.org)
1st week Creation “The Lord planted a garden in Eden And placed there the man whom He had molded ” Gn 2, 8
God has molded us in his garden. Let’s not stray into the fields where the serpent roams but let’s learn to savor the benefits of the garden with multiple tasty fruits!
Fasting is one of the graces of Lent to refocus us accurately at the heart of the creation entrusted to us.
1st Sunday
A spiritual sweetness
“My lovable Saviour… Give your blessing to these simple and coarse meats that they will prefer, for love of you, to the most delicate. Season them with so many spiritual sweets that they have nothing but disgust for all others. Let them learn, by their own experience, that your yoke is not so heavy as they imagine; that you know how to make it light, when one submits to it with a good grace. Do not content yourself with accepting their penance, please make it pleasing to them. »
1st Monday
A recognized tradition
“If these former faithful had dared to dispense with the harsh obligations that the Church imposed on them with regard to fasting, this fault would have been treated as cowardice, disobedience, spite. But today the fast that she us orders is rather a health regimen than an exercise in penance, the refusal- what we are doing to obey him? – must it not pass for a complete rebellion? »
1st Tuesday
Tame our passions
“Everyone knows that fasting is a natural remedy against the revolts of flesh ; even the pagans used it to repress greed, that is to say, as Saint Augustine remarks, to tame a horse on which they never stopped getting lost. »
1st Wednesday
faith in works
“It is in vain that you have orthodox feelings, if your actions testify contrary to your feelings. This exterior that seems of such small consequence, that which simply looks like the bark of religion is what Saint James calls the soul and life of religion. faith: without that you are only a Catholic in painting, you are only a shadow, the corpse of a Catholic.
1st Friday
union with Jesus in his passion
” What ! Adam’s sin in eating the forbidden fruit has already cost the life of my Redeemer; and I would have the courage to commit a similar fault by using the meats that the Church forbids me at the time when we are now ! My good master died for me, and I would not fast for the love of him! He died to erase my sins of which he was in no way guilty; and I could not abstain from any meal to punish in me these same sins! »
1st Saturday
communion with the Church
“ The whole Church is presently in mourning and penance, and I, who glorify to be one of his children, I would take no part in his pain! There will be zero difference between me and a heretic! I would then be livinglike those who disbelieve in Jesus Christ, and in his precious death. »