March 31 Fri
Jesus shows us that in prayer we can obtain the strength needed to align our will with the Will of the Father and to carry it out.
To be a Christian is to share in the life of Jesus, dealing with him just like our Mother Mary did, like the Twelve did.

The Gospels teach us in many places how to pray: your prayer should be constant, humble. and filled with trust.
Authentic Christian life is impossible without prayer.
Prayer is a personal, intimate, and deep dialogue. Vocal prayer, meditation (of mental payer) and contemplation are all expressions of prayer.

We pray to him as God, he prays for us as a servant, Head of his Mystical Body. Himself unchanged, he took to himself our created nature in order to change it, and made us one man with himself, head and body. We pray then to him, through him, in him, and we speak along with him and he along with us.
Do I devote some minutes in conversation with Jesus, alone, every day?

Jesus spent his life doing good, giving hope to those who had lost it. Jesus shares his mission with his apostles and his disciples –with you and me – to spread the message of salvation.
Accompanying Christ means, becoming a “fisher of men,” to bring the Gospel to the entire world, beginning with the persons closest to you.
How can I do apostolate? First is your example, then your “apostolate of friendship and confidence,” authentic friendship that seeks the good of the other person. You should share with your friends your own personal experience of friendship with Jesus.
When was last time I tried to bring a friend closer to Jesus?

 March 30 Thu
God’s love for us led the Son of God to take on a human nature to be able to die, and so, free us from sin. And then, He “divinizes” us by making us sharers in the divine nature. This is the path to heaven. Our faith is not a grand idea but an encounter with a Person: getting to know Christ, falling in love with him, and growing constantly in that love; the greatest Love.

Holiness consists in acquiring Christ’s attitude, living his very life. To truly know and love him we have to deal with him in prayer and in the sacraments. Living the Gospel, reading it and putting ourselves in it “like one more person” in the scene. Who is Jesus for me? Is he my best friend? My elder Brother?

Jesus, “the son of a craftsman,” grew up and lived just like one of us. Jesus saves us, not only when he preaches, when he is on the Cross, but also when he is in the workshop of Nazareth.

To attain sanctity, it is not necessary to do extraordinary things, but to fulfill with love our ordinary daily duties. Do I realize that it is there, in my family, social, and professional duties, that
Jesus comes into the world in a simple and normal family home. “Bright and cheerful homes” are formed by putting Jesus in the center of family life. Do I “invest’ in my family life? Do we do some practices of piety together, perhaps only a few, but regularly?

 March 29 Wed
Christ has overcome death; thus, I should confront it with peace and filial trust. The consideration of the fleetingness of life on earth encourages me to realize that time is a limited gift from God. It is a talent that I have, to produce a return on. What use am I making of my time?
Jesus, I must not fear death because it is the step that brings me closer to what I have sought most in my life: to enjoy total happiness in the fullness of your presence.
Life is short and I must make the most of it, taking advantage of time, to love and serve you, strengthening myself daily with prayer and the sacraments.

After death, there is the particular judgment when our immortal soul receives its eternal retribution. Our judge will be Jesus. We will be examined according to how much we have loved: and our omissions because of lack of love.

We have been created for eternal happiness. This is a gift that God offers to everyone, but accepting it depends on our freedom. What use do I make of my freedom? For God or my egoism?
Hell is a definitive self-exclusion from any kind of happiness, a situation of endless torment.

Purgatory is a purification needed to enter into the joy of heaven. Our Lord invites us to be vigilant; one way of living this loving vigilance is the daily examination of conscience.
We have to reject sin, which takes us away from our destiny: to die in mortal sin without repenting or accepting God’s merciful love means going to hell.

Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of our deepest aspirations; it is completely beyond our understanding. We must trust that we will receive divine help to reach heaven, which is life in God.

 

March 28 Tue

He: "Woman, where are your accusers? No one of them has condemned you? "None, Lord," she answered with great respect, humility, and confusion. "For neither do I condemn you. Go and henceforth sin no more." What wonderful words, coming straight from the heart of God!

 

We all have sinned. Sin is an offense against God; it separates us from God, who is our final end, and our happiness. Sin is the only true evil. Whoever sins mortally is telling Jesus, “You, go back to Calvary! Go back to the Cross to be crucified again!”

 

Jesus has come to show us his Father’s compassion, to save us who were lost.

 

Lord, I want to return to the Father’s house; grant me the grace of conversion. Send me your grace to overcome sin. I should never lose hope. The sacrament of reconciliation is the wonderful remedy.

 

And yet, there is so much lukewarmness in my life! Help me to really hate mortal sin; to struggle against venial sins; to flee from occasions of sin. I want to fight to overcome spiritual mediocrity, reject lukewarmness. I want to always make progress. I know, only my love for God can fill my heart.

 

Pic: The kiss of Judas, by Cimabue (c. 1240 - 1302).

 March 27 Monday
Holy Week is approaching. A time for the conversion of my heart to God. For this reason, during this week, each day, these considerations will follow the pattern of a “spiritual retreat.”
I ask Our Lord for courage to make a sincere examination of conscience, trusting in God’s mercy. Listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, will help me to make some specific resolutions.

The whole universe, and especially human life, are part of the Creator’s plan, an overflowing of God’s Love. God created me, freely, and He introduced me in his plans.

Why did He create me? For what?
This is what each of us must find out specifically.  He created me to be happy, as a child of God, for ever. He could have created me as a dog or a horse, or not at all. Yet, I am here.
Do I live this “sense” of my divine filiation? Do I live as an adopted child of God the Father, which is a vocation to holiness?

Sanctity is the fullness of love: the only ideal that fulfills my heart. Holiness is both a gift from God and an unfinished task. Freely, I want to choose God: “God, who created you without you, will not save you without you” (Saint Augustine).

I should take advantage of the means that God himself, through the Church, has given me: the sacraments and prayer. God wants me to be a saint, yes me, in the specific circumstances of my life.

 March 26
The dead man Lazarus represents mankind, dead by sin. Why did Jesus decide to go to Jerusalem, when it could cost him his life? What moved him? ... His love for his dead friend. God continues loving the sinner, even when he rebels, even when he is dead. Jesus is shaken and cries for the sinner. Jesus has compassion and love for me; he calls me from death to life.

We should not be anxious about our past mistakes, or the possibility of future faults. Let's abandon ourselves into God's merciful hands. Let's show him our desires. He is listening to us. You only have to talk.

Our Lord is always ready to listen to us, but he wants our personal response, shown in the effort we make to get out of any situation which prevents us from following him closely. “In the interior life, there is but one fatal illness, one deadly mistake you can make: to settle for defeat, not to know how to fight with the spirit of a child of God. If this personal effort is lacking, the soul is paralyzed and languishes alone, and is incapable of bearing fruit.” St Josemaría

What a pity if Jesus does not find in you the man or the woman he expects. Let us tell him now, simply and plainly: "Yes, Lord, I want to be healed, I want to be freed from this impediment that separates me from you, and prevents me from living to the full the divine life to which you have called me."

 March 25
The Blessed Virgin is in prayer when she receives the message from the Archangel. I, too, must listen to the voice of God in the midst of my daily concerns. I want to be a contemplative soul: my cell is the street. "In the middle of my work my heart escapes to God, it goes often to the oratory, and I tell him, without anyone hearing me, without doing anything strange: 'My Jesus, I love you.' Don't be afraid to call him Jesus, to call him that often." St Josemaria

The Blessed Virgin listens to the voice of God, and she meditates on His words in her heart. And as soon as she becomes aware of what the Will of God is, she prepares to carry it out. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord": is her disposition to serve. "Be it done unto me according to thy word": is her desire to conceive the Son of God.

In the words of our Lady there is a tone of resolve, of firmness, of something finished, definitive. She does not respond with a mere yes to the divine Will, but with a fiat! – let it be done! – which expresses an active and total conformity to what God is asking of her. It is much more than a mere giving of permission. It is a resolute adherence to the plan of God, a commitment of her whole life without wavering.

Lord, I want to love you, but sometimes I do not know the way well, or I let myself be carried away by my own interest; therefore, like the tax collector, I ask you: Have mercy on me! And hear my prayer.

 March 24
The Lord tells us: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In these few words he gives a command, and he makes a promise. Let us do what he commands so that we may not hear him say on the day of judgement: “I laid down certain conditions for obtaining my promises. Have you fulfilled them?”
If you say: “What did you command, Lord?” He will tell you: “I commanded you to follow me. You asked for advice on how to enter life forever.”

Let us do now what he commands. Let us follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Let us throw off the chains that prevent us from following him. Who can throw off these shackles?

You are not being told, “Work hard to find the way by which you can come to truth and life.”
Rather, the Way has itself come to you; it has awakened you from sleep. So, since you have been roused from sleep, get up and walk.

Or perhaps you are trying to walk but cannot do it because it hurts. Why are your feet hurting? Has greed or sensuality caused you to run over rough ground? The word of God heals even the lame. Or perhaps your feet are sound, but you cannot see the way to follow. Even so, he gives sight even to the blind.
Do not be sluggish! Get up! He is waiting to heal you.

 

Today, especially, let us all ATONE for the offenses against the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, praying and meditating of the beautiful hymn “Adoro Te Devote,” composed by St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century.

 

I devoutly adore you, O hidden Deity,

Truly hidden beneath these appearances.

My whole heart submits to you,

And in contemplating you, It surrenders itself completely.

 

Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgment of you,

But hearing suffices firmly to believe.

I believe all that the Son of God has spoken;

There is nothing truer than this word of truth.

 

On the cross only the divinity was hidden,

But here the humanity is also hidden.

Yet believing and confessing both,

I ask for what the repentant thief asked.

 

I do not see the wounds as Thomas did,

But I confess that you are my God.

Make me believe more and more in you,

Hope in you, and love you.

 

O memorial of our Lord's death!

Living bread that gives life to man,

Grant my soul to live on you,

And always to savor your sweetness.

 

Lord Jesus, Good Pelican,

wash my filthiness and clean me with your blood,

One drop of which can free

the entire world of all its sins.

 

Jesus, whom now I see hidden,

I ask you to fulfill what I so desire:

That the sight of your face being unveiled

I may have the happiness of seeing your glory. Amen.

 

The voice Jesus continues to cry out in the desert of the consciences of so many men, calling them to conversion, attracting them to his love. But the Jews did not understand him. Will we understand him today?

 March 23
I love you, Lord, my strength. You, O God, are my strength. I rest in you! I can't do anything, big or small, if you don't help me –and if I do it for Love, then nothing is small! But if I really do my best, God's strong arm comes to strengthen, to temper, and to carry away sorrow; and then the weight no longer overwhelms me.

The things that apparently don't work out, and that make my life difficult, are far more valuable to me than the ones that seem to go effortlessly.

If I don't have clear ideas about this, when difficulties do arise, they will leave me bewildered and distressed. But, if I learn to see God's will precisely in painful circumstances, even if it is hard, and if I love Jesus Christ, realizing that I am a co-redeemer with him, then I will not lack insight, peace of soul, and the strength to do my duty.

Join me in telling Jesus: Lord, we only want to serve you. We only want to fulfill our duty and to love you deeply and truly. Make us feel your firm steps at our side. Be our only support. Thus, nothing will take away our peace. If we live with this confidence, nothing will be able to take away our joy. No one will be able to disrupt our serenity. In this life everything can be solved except death, and for us death is Life.
And, forgive us –all of us– for the offenses perpetrated against you, who are present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.

 March 22
My God, increase my faith. Each time I approach you, I experience the desire to clearly understand your presence among us. My faith is weak, so help my unbelief not to pass by with distracted ears when you speak to my heart.

Lord Jesus, after meditating at your side on how I can love you through my neighbor, I thank you for teaching me to love the person I love the least, but also to love the one who needs it most.

Jesus, today I offer you my sins and my weakness, because I am your debtor. I know that you want to forgive me. That is why I come with great confidence. I trust in your merits and in your death. I want to be an instrument of your forgiveness. Give me this grace.

It would be wonderful if we could take a few hours one of these days of Lent to make a retreat, in which we could dedicate ourselves without haste to open ourselves to what God wants to tell us. It is a matter of getting used to silencing our own voice to be able to hear God's voice.

 March 21
Temperance. No one is cured or cleansed from the stains of the body except the one who tries to bring it about. For God's favors are not granted to those who sleep but to those who watch. We must respond to divine grace, which means staying alert, and being quick to reject anything that might turn us away from God.

Our senses are like the doors of the soul. Our spiritual powers are fed by what the senses give them. Therefore, we must guard our senses, so as not to admit into our soul anything harmful.

Temperance is self-mastery. Not everything we experience in our bodies and souls should be given free rein. Nor should we to do everything we can do. It is easier to let ourselves be carried away by so-called natural impulses, but this road ends up in sadness and isolation in our own misery.

To achieve happiness, you need a heart which is in love, not an easy life. If we appeal lovingly to our Lady, as her children, we will grow strong in temperance; and our heart, our senses, our whole life, will be filled with God.

 March 20
God tells us that He planted a vineyard. The vineyard is us; it is you and me, who have sealed a covenant with Him. A covenant of fidelity. A commitment to change the world with our life, with our “yes,” with our daily surrender. We have said yes, and we have committed ourselves.

St. Joseph was designated the guardian of Jesus and Mary. And he fulfilled his mission. A full life, that is what God gave him, and likewise promises us. I wish I had more of St. Joseph's vocational sense of life: the purpose and meaning of one's life.

As he did with St. Joseph, Jesus comes out to meet us and has called us by our name. Each one’s vocation is a hidden treasure, an inexhaustible source of graces from God to fulfill that mission. Do I make use of those graces waiting there to be employed?

 March 19
God only wants me to be humble, like St. Joseph, and to empty myself so that he can fill me with his grace in my poor heart.

A humble prayer is the only interior attitude pleasing in the eyes of God, who opposes the proud, but gives his grace to the humble. Humility makes prayer all-powerful; it allows God to work in our soul, and it opens the way to sanctity.

I wish I had a sincere desire to wrap myself in this virtue taught by Jesus Christ when he said, “I am meek and humble of heart.” It was the virtue which attracted the gaze of the Most Holy Trinity to his Mother and our Mother: the humility of knowing and being aware of my nothingness.

Yet, I must not be deceived by false humility. Humility requires struggle. This fight should start from knowledge of the enemy, and the enemy is pride, self-love, vainglory.

It is necessary to let myself be transformed by God: to throw myself into the bosom of the Most Blessed Trinity so that my way of thinking, willing and loving become as God wants, divine. There is no true humility without a profound immolation of myself on the altar of the heavenly liturgy, united to Him."

 March 18
I must always be of service, but I must be first Christ’s servant. As a Christian, I cannot bury what has been entrusted to me and remain a faithful servant. I cannot at one and the same time speak in Christ’s name while hiding Christ’s light.

As a Catholic, I must be rooted always in the Truth as Christ revealed it, as the Church has Magisterially articulated it, and as the saints have exemplified it in their lives. A “placatory” Catholicism –a Catholicism which concedes to others the right to define Christ’s teachings for themselves, and thus concedes that right to the world, the flesh, and the Devil– is a bankrupt Catholicism. These Catholics only hastens their own irrelevance.

Within the Church, in every era, some have wished to exchange the Way, the Truth and the Life for mere personal comfort and worldly acceptance, as if truncating the Gospel somehow would extend the Church’s mission. They contrive as did Satan Himself to make Christ bow down and worship what is false in order to gain the whole world.

There is no room in heaven for those who concede that Christ is not the Lord of all. There is no room in heaven for those who are unwilling to be joined to Him as completely as His own body, and as intimately as His own bride.

 March 17
Like Joseph, the son of Jacob, Christ the Lord came to look for his brothers, mankind. He came from the eternal Father and brought food with him. But his people did not want to have anything to do with him. They took him for a dreamer, a madman, possessed by the devil. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. They went further still. Because their hard hearts were full of hatred and ingratitude, they said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance."

“Even though we are sorry for it, we are not innocent of Christ's Death. The sins of all men – including our own – were what nailed him to the Cross.” St Josemaría

Our sins made our Lord's Passion more painful and harder to bear. We ought to be fully aware of this truth and feel personally responsible for the events that happened in Calvary. We cannot hide in the crowd. Instead, we must make reparation and atonement: love is paid back with love.

God invites us to return to Him at once, quickly, like children, even if the weight of our repeated rebelliousness overwhelms us. Awareness that God is our Father brings joy to our conversion: we feel that we are returning to our Father's house.

Our Lord expects specific, sincere deeds of penance, and the best penance is to do what Jesus Christ is asking of us at every moment.

Our Blessed Lady helps us to be more generous in our effort to make reparation, which improves our self-giving.

 March 16
“Christ has called us, and asks us: ‘Are you ready to drink the chalice – the chalice which means giving yourself fully to the will of the Father – which I am going to drink?’ Possumus! Yes! We are ready! was the reply of John and James. Are you and I really ready to carry out, in everything, the will of our Father God? Have we given our Lord our whole heart, or are we attached to ourselves and our interests and comfort and self-love? Is there anything in our lives out of keeping with our Christianity, something which makes us unwilling to mend our ways? Today we are given a chance to set things straight.” St Josemaría

Mortification of the senses are very good and even indispensable. But they are not enough. The Lord wants nothing of self to remain; he wants us to learn to deny ourselves, and he wants our dedication to be total and unconditional.

“First of all, we must be convinced that Jesus is putting these questions to us personally. He is the one who asks them, not I. I wouldn't dare even put them to myself. I am praying aloud, and each of you, silently, is admitting to our Lord: ‘Lord, how useless I am, what a coward I have been! How many mistakes I've made, over and over again.’ And we can go further and say: ‘It's good, Lord, you have kept me up with your hand; for, left to myself, I am capable of the most disgraceful things. Don't let me go; keep on treating me like a little child. I want to be strong and brave and manly. But you must help me. I am a clumsy creature. Take me by the hand, Lord, and make sure that your Mother is also by my side to guard me. And so, possumus! We can; we will be able to have you as our model.’" St Josemaría

Today’s challenge: Perform a little service for the persons at home; this mortification will make the others' self-giving more pleasant.

 March 15
“If everything seems to be fading away, if your spiritual edifice totters, find your support in filial confidence in Jesus and Mary –the sure and steady rock on which you should have built from the beginning.”
“Our spiritual combat in the presence of God and of all our brothers in the faith is a necessary result of being a Christian. So, if you do not fight, you are betraying Jesus Christ and the whole Church, his Mystical Body.” St Josemaría

So, let us lift our gaze from the horizon and look upwards, because everything in our life is from God and for God. Let us not excuse our mistakes with the mistakes of others, because our only model should be Jesus, in Him we should fix all our goals.
On the one hand, we have to struggle as if everything depended on us; and on the other, we must turn to God with the confidence that comes from knowing that our petition will be heard. 

To seek a remedy for our faults is a task of love. For this reason, we must take advantage of a very necessary - and indispensable - means, which is the examination of conscience.

Illustration: The Child Jesus holds a cross, his Cross, placed at the center of a circle that represents the entire world, waiting for us to bring Jesus into it.

 March 14
Jesus' trajectory has been to give himself out of love to the extreme. And what is his secret? That his human heart was fully satiated with the love of God the Father and in harmony with Him. He gave his life to satiate with love the hearts of all those who approach him and to make us capable of loving as he loved, giving us his Holy Spirit.

Mother Mary, you will facilitate that the Holy Spirit may unite us in a greater and purified love. Help us in this decisive spiritual battle.

Make possible, Lord Jesus Christ, what we cannot achieve alone and allow us to reach the paradise where we will all love each other fully.

Today’s challenge: Repeat the aspiration “Jesus, Jesus, be for me always Jesus!” that St Josemaría used.

Pic: God the Father send his Son from heaven to die for us. From the Cross, and always united to the Will of the Father, Jesus rescues each repentant sinner from the quagmire.

 March 13  Sacrifice
Love for the Will of God brings us joy in sacrifice. When we offer discomfort, tiredness, adversities, and small mortifications for the salvation of souls, they then take on the same significance. They give us gaudium cum pace, peace and joy in the Cross, something characteristic of the saints.

Yet, there is a kind of fear around, a fear of the Cross, of our Lord's Cross. What has happened is that people have begun to regard as crosses all the unpleasant things that crop up in life, and they do not know how to take them as God's children should, with supernatural outlook.

“We have to accept mortifications – from the small details of punctuality and order in work, to the renunciation of all that is ours – with the same attitude as Jesus Christ.” (St Josemaría). Our Lord is upon the Cross saying, I am suffering so that men, who are my brothers, may be happy, not only in heaven but also – as far as possible – on earth, if they really embrace the most Holy Will of my heavenly Father.

You should realize that God wants you to be glad and that, if you do all you can, you will be happy, very, very happy, although you will never be a moment without the Cross. But that Cross is no longer some gallows. It is the throne from which Christ reigns. And at his side is his Mother, our Mother too…and St Joseph. The Blessed Virgin will obtain for you the strength that you need to walk decisively in the footsteps of her Son.
For today: When a little unpleasant event happens, accept it, saying: You want it, Lord, I also want it.
Illustration: The Presentation in the Temple, icon of Our Lady and St Joseph in Russian imperial regalia.

March 12
Christ centered - All the Apostles recalled the first days that they spent in Jesus' company as marking the start of a new life for them. St John felt the same way. “When he recounts his divine adventure many years later, those pages of the Gospel are as fresh and fragrant as an affectionate diary. ‘It was about four o'clock in the afternoon,’ he writes. He recalls the very moment when Jesus, seeing that they were following him, invited them to accompany him.” (St Josemaría)
Every Christian is an apostle. “Open your lips, and let God’s word be heard.” The word of God is pronounced by those who repeat Christ’s teaching and meditate on his sayings. Let us always speak this word.

When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ.
When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ.
When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ.
When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ.
When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking of Christ.
It is for you to open your lips; it is for him to be heard.

Today’s challenge: To listen to a friend, and perhaps to help him make a good confession.

 March 11
I LOVE THIS ANALOGY.
- When GOD wanted to create fish, he spoke to the sea.
- When GOD wanted to create trees, he spoke to earth.
- But when GOD wanted to create man, he turned to HIMSELF.
- So, GOD said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

Note:
- If you take a fish out of the water, it will die; and when you remove a tree from the ground, it also dies.
- Likewise, when man disconnects himself from GOD, he dies.
- GOD* is our natural environment.  We were created to live in HIS presence.
- We must be connected to HIM because only with HIM does life exist.
- Let us remain connected with GOD.
- Let us remember that water without fish is still water, but fish without water is nothing.
- The soil without the tree is still soil, but the tree without the soil is nothing....
- God without man is still God, but man without GOD is nothing.

Every day, try to get closer to Him, through the word (read the Gospel) and through the bread (frequent the sacraments).

Pic: Our Lady between St John the Baptist and M. Magdalene, by Cima da Conegliano (c. 1459 - c. 1517)

 March 10
The means that help us practice holy purity are:
1. Intense work done with a sense of responsibility.
2. Fleeing from occasions of sin.
3. Guarding of our heart and our senses…guarding our eyes.
4. Mortification, which controls our feelings and our body, giving us the self-mastery of God's children.
5. A real relationship with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
6. Frequent Confession; and
7. Devotion to our Blessed Mother. The three Hail Marys we say at night will help us in a special way.
Woven into these means are humility, and its immediate consequence, sincerity. If the dumb devil gets inside a soul, he ruins everything. On the other hand, if he is cast out immediately, everything turns out well; we are happy, and life goes forward properly. Let us always be brutally sincere, but in a good-mannered way.
Go to spiritual direction with your soul wide open. Don't close it because, I repeat, the dumb devil will get in, and it is difficult to get him out again. Tell first what you would not like to be known.

This gift - chastity - is granted to those who asked for it. Our humble petition will be answered through the intercession of our Lady, Mater Pulchrae Dilectionis, Mother of Fair Love.

 March 9

Look at chastity of body and of spirit is as wings. Wings, even for those majestic birds which soar higher than the clouds, are a burden, and a heavy one. But without wings, they could not fly.
Grasp this idea clearly, and decide not to give in when you feel the sting of temptation, with its suggestion that purity is an unbearable burden… Take heart! Fly upwards, soar aloft, up to the sun, in pursuit of Love! (St Josemaria)

At times the fight to practice this virtue may be a hard one. However, we will always be helped by our basic motivation of love, which gives meaning to our life, and also by these words, of St Josemaría: “Someone who has once seen his Christian commitment clearly, even if he were never to see it again, should hold on to it forever out of a sense of faithfulness, never looking back once he has put his hand to the plough.”

We cannot be surprised that we still have inclinations that try to steer us off our way, temptations that offer earthly consolations. One thing is to feel temptation, quite another to consent. Temptation can be rejected easily with God's help. What we must never do is to dialogue with temptation. God's Love is worth any love!

Lord, let me be renewed by this Eucharist. Let me become more like Christ your Son, who is Lord for ever and ever.
Today’s challenge: At Mass, ask our Lord to keep you pure, in his hands.

 March 8
Come Holy Spirit. Without you there is no life worth living. Therefore, from my doubts, fears, tiredness, and weaknesses I want to invoke you.
Come, Holy Spirit, to water what is dry, come to strengthen what is weak, come to heal what is sick. Amen.

It is not overnight that one becomes a man of God. It takes time. I must accept the stages, the progressions, the slowness, the moments of discouragement, the failures, the obscurities, the delusions, and even the desire to throw it all away. I do not look for the difficult for its own sake. But there are difficulties that are an integral part of my spiritual reality.
I know that this path entails self-denial and sacrifice, but it will be fruitful without comparison if I seek to find you.

Mother Mary, you will make it possible for the Holy Spirit to unite us in a greater and purified love. Help us in this decisive spiritual battle.

Make possible, Lord Jesus Christ, what we cannot achieve alone and allow us to reach the paradise where we will all love each other fully.

Today’s challenge: Pray the Rosary with true devotion.

 Purgatory - God our Father has promised us a place of absolute happiness. To enter heaven, a soul must be free from all traces of sin.

To cleanse us, God disposed Purgatory, a place for purification. For the souls in purgatory, even their punishments bring joy.

God purifies us also during our life on earth. Our suffering freely accepted and sought for love of God, pain, and sacrifice: these are instruments of reparation. These are our purgatory on earth. We must be convinced that pain and suffering are part of God's plan, and that they serve as atonement in this life and prepare us for our final union with God.

There is much that we need to purify in ourselves. There are venial sins; there are omissions in love. And even the temporal debt of past sins, which must be paid either in this life or in the next. So, we should ask the Lord: Cleanse me in this life and make me such that I do not need to be punished by fire.

But suffering must be accompanied by joy. I beg our Blessed Lady, Refuge of sinners, that the thought of purgatory may make me more generous every day in atoning for my faults.

Today’s challenge: In your thanksgiving after Mass, don’t forget to pray for the souls in Purgatory; beginning with your relatives and friends.