LENTEN RETREAT ON GRACE, MERCY AND FORGIVENESS (LUKE 15:11-32)
Forgiveness is the central focus of Lent and the Christian life. it sets us free from being prisoner of the offender as well as prisoners of unhappiness. It is not a sign of weakness but a strength to forgive. this the central message also of our retreat.
(A song of Lent or mercy possibly a song on Psalms 50) before the opening prayer).
OPENING PRAYER
O God, who desire not the death of sinners, but their conversion mercifully hear our prayers and in your kindness be pleased to grant us, your grace, that through the humble acknowledgement of our sins may we through a steadfast observance of Lent, gain pardon for our sins and the newness of life after the image and likeness of your Risen Son: Jesus Christ Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen
LENTEN RETREAT ON GRACE, MERCY AND FORGIVENESS THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON AND THE PRODIGAL FATHER. (LUKE 15:11-32)
The Lenten season is a moment of unmerited grace given to us by God through his Church liturgical year. It is a moment of God’s invitation to us to embrace mercy through repentance of sins. (The second reading of this Sunday: Ephesians 2:4-10)
Lenten season is about three (Rs), namely: Repentance, Reconciliation and Renewal.
FIRST: REPENTANCE
Repentance of sins, this is why we begin the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday. A day we are given ashes as a sign that we are dust and onto dust, we shall return. Hence, there a humble necessity to repent of our sins and by taking advantage of the infinite of mercy: Psalm 102 (103): 8, 10
“The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and generous to forgive. He does not treat us according to our sins or pay us according to our iniquity”.
Repentance or conversion in Latin means “metanoia” which means a change of heart or mind. In the context of Lent we could say, it implies and drastic or radical change of mind or heart from doing evil or wrong to doing good or right.
It is not an external sign of repentance or penance for the consequence of sin alone, but also an internal or interior repentance and true or genuine sorry for our sins.
SECOND: RECONCILIATION
We do not only repent of our sins but we must seek reconciliation for our broken relationship with God, others and ourselves. These are the three dimension of reconciliation.
(a) God (God is a merciful and forgiving father and not a sadist policeman or judge whose only job is to take into account our wrongdoings, errors or sins. To punish us severely. On the contrary, his mercy is infinite and his grace and goodness are forever. NO MATTER OUR SINS, HOW OFTEN AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES. (John 3:14-21, The Gospel of today).
(b) Others that is our brothers and sisters: we do not only offend God but also our fellow human beings. That could be our spouse, children, family members, friends, colleague, neighbours and even strangers. This could two-ways reconciliation either us receiving forgiveness from those whom we offend or giving forgiveness to those who offend us.
Our reconciliation can be direct to God or to those we offended through the sacrament of confession or reconciliation. (Note the sacrament of confession is not only to tell one´s sins. No, it is a moment of spiritual guidance or direction that is why it is advised to have one constant confessor if possible. It is also a therapy of healing where we share our struggles, cares and worries).
Reconciliation is very important and necessary in our lives as a human. This is because it brings peace of mind and harmony to the body. That is, it brings both spiritual and corporal healing. A lot of physical and psychological illnesses are linked to a lack of forgiveness. Such as high blood pressure, insomnia, depression, loss of appetite ETC.
FORGIVENESS SETS US FREE FROM BEING PRISONER OF THE OFFENDER AS WELL AS PRISONERS OF UNHAPPINESS. IT IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS BUT STRENGTH TO FORGIVE.
SIX BASIC THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT FORGIVENESS
1. It is very difficult to forgiveness if not humanly impossible because our human is vengeful and this is normal, natural and human. Yet, forgiveness is possible through God´s grace.
2. The lack of forgiveness is the greatest obstacle to our forgiveness from God (The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, Matthew 18:21-35)
3. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. We are humans with a memory that hardly forget the bad things we experienced. It is right to remember from time to time the hurt that has been done to us.
4. We can begin forgiveness by praying for not just God´s grace to forgive those who offended us. Praying for our offenders is the first and most important step to forgiveness.
5. Forgiveness is never and will never be complete or whole without a restoration. That is returning to the original relationship you had with your offenders before things went wrong or bad.
6. Forgiveness does not mean leaving yourself vulnerable to your offender to continue hurting you. It may imply defending yourself, protecting yourself or standing or confronting your offender.
(c) Ourselves, we all need to forgive ourselves for our failures, errors, mistakes and sins especially when we are truly repentant of them. There is not that kills the Christian joy and happiness like the sense of guilty or heaviness of guilt feelings.
If we do not learn to forgive ourselves, not only do we limit the mercy of God over our lives but we also find it difficult to forgive others.
We must know no matter our sins, how many times we have committed them and whichever manner we have committed them. They are pardonable and we are redeemable by Jesus Christ, through God the Father in the Holy Spirit.
The entire mission of Christ and the Church is preaching, teaching and practising forgiveness of sins. In my priestly experience, one aspect of reconciliation that many of us battle with is SELF-FORGIVENESS.
GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS NOT FOR ANGELS AND SAINTS IT IS FOR HUMAN: WEAK, IMPERFECT AND ERRONEOUS WHILE LIVING AND STRUGGLING THROUGH LIFE.
So, please learn to be patient with yourself. God has not finished working on you. All you need to keep your conscience alive and practice constant repentance or change of heart and mind.
THIRD RENEWAL
At Lent, we are invited not just to repentance of our sins and do penance for them. As well as being reconciled to God, we are called also to renew our lives. As such, we are worthy to
a. Celebrate and experience the paschal feast of Easter with newness. This is the eco-spiritual reason of Easter always in spring; the sprout of new life on earth of the dead of winter.
b. Without proper Lenten observances: prayer, fasting, penance and almsgivings we cannot have a renewed Easter of victory and alleluia over sins, death, evil and the devil.
c. Ultimately through the Lenten renewal we are supposed to attain spiritual growth and Christian maturity. Lent is like a desert experience or the rite of passage in our African traditional setting when the boy-child or the girl-child after the rite or experience passed onto the mature and adult age or stage.
MODERN CHRISTIAN AND THE SENSE OF SIN
Mankind and religion due to secularization have lost the sense of sin. We also are trying very hard to suppress the sense of guilt (the modern psychological illnesses of modern man and woman). Suppressed guilt resurfaced in thousands of ways to hurts and make us miserable no only humanly but spiritually.
We trivialize sins, cream-coated them and rebranded them with names or terms less pricking to our conscience (abortion is now female reproductive right or narcissism and narcissistic abuses as being principled and demanding).
The first step of the spiritual journey towards God and salvation is the consciousness of unworthiness, the recognition of one’s sins and humble admittance to seek a remedy through repentance and forgiveness. This is exactly what we do at Lent.
FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE SACRAMENTS OF CONFESSION AND THE HOLY EUCHARIST
The sacrament of reconciliation or confession is very important for us to obtain our wholeness of body and spirit together. It is a sacrament of re-connectedness with God, the Church, our brothers and sisters and ourselves too. After the rapture or brokenness caused by sins. The sacrament of reconciliation is not only to confess our sins. It is equally a sacrament of healing, restoration and therapeutic. It is where our souls and lives are guided spiritually to God by a confessor/spiritual director.
We are not only forgiven through the sacrament of confession with a priest. There is also the forgiveness of sins at mass. At the beginning of the Mass during the penitential rite and the general absolution of the priest before Kyrie is sung.
However, it should be noted the sins forgiven during the celebration of the Holy Mass are venial sins, not mortal sins. Equally, if opportune they can confess directly to God in the sacrament of confession.
Going to confession is something voluntarily but we as Catholics are encouraged to confess or going to this sacrament as often as we can especially during Lent/Paschal.
( The song AMAZING GRACE before the closing prayer).
OUR CLOSING PRAYER
O God, moved by our acts of humility and repentance, and respond with forgiveness to our works of penance, lend your merciful ear to our prayers and in your kindness pour out your grace upon us your servants who are marked with human frailty and struggle in the valley of tears. That, as we follow the Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance we may be worthy to come with minds, hearts and body made pure to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of your Son our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
GRACE OF A RETREAT
For the intention of our Holy Father: Pope Francis and for our intentions and the spiritual benefit of the retreat us. Let us pray One Our Father, One Hail Mary and One Glory be….
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