It is Ash Wednesday and with this day we begin Lent.
The Lenten experience gives us a clear call: to allow ourselves to be reconciled with God and with life. It helps us to see that conversion is not only a personal effort, but a grace that is offered to us here and now. St. Paul urges us to welcome this time as an opportunity for salvation. He reminds us not to wait for the perfect moment: this is the favorable time, this is the day of salvation.
Also as a Congregation, the Daughters of Jesus are living a “favorable time”: a time to stop, review, let go of what no longer helps and strengthen what gives life. Recognizing our vulnerability is not a weakness, but the first step to open ourselves to grace and to walk with hope towards the new that God wants to do. It is time to discern with hope how to better adapt ourselves to the mission entrusted to us today. Ash places us in truth, and from there it opens us to a strength that is not born of self-sufficiency, but of trust in God and the sense of the Body.
“Now is the favorable time, now is the day of salvation.”
Brethren. We act as envoys of Christ, and it is as if God himself were exhorting you through us. In the name of Christ we ask you to be reconciled to God. God made him who had not sinned an atonement for our sin, so that we, united with him, might receive justification from God. Seconding his work, we exhort you, for he says: “In a favorable time I heard you, in a day of salvation I came to your help”; for behold, now is a favorable time, now is a day of salvation. 2 Cor 5:20-6:2
Priority: From vulnerability to strength: a process of adjustment with hope
With a look full of Hope, we feel that we urgently need to evaluate our communities, works and apostolic tasks in the inspiring light of the Constitutions and Guidelines and complementary norms in order to respond better to current needs. Likewise, we are urged to make adjustments that take into account the sustainability of the universal Body. With this hope as our guide, we will discern wisely where to focus our forces. To make this necessary adaptation possible, an attitude of availability and a sense of the Body are fundamental pillars.
Likewise, we embrace our vulnerability with trust and abandonment in God, opening ourselves to receive the help of others with humility and organizing ourselves in such a way that we can continue to respond to the most pressing cries of humanity. Det CGXIX n. 21
Question for discernment
What concrete changes do we feel today that the Lord invites us to make, personally and as a community, in order to live this time of adaptation with availability and hope and thus respond better to the mission?
Ignatian prayer proposal
