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Sr. M. Ceceliatook her perpetual vows on July 9th, 2011 at Most Holy Trinity Parish Church in San Jose, California. View the gallery. |
A Pauline Centenary Pastoral Tool
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION, n. 6 ***
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION FOR LENT 2014
March 5--April 17, 2014
"Rich Because We Are Poor"
(+) Jesus Master ...
SONG: "The Glory of the Forty Days" or another appropriate song
SILENT ADORATION
WORDS OF BLESSED ALBERIONE (APD 1960, n. 37-38)
Lent is like a course of Spiritual Exercises by humanity, by the Church ... The Church invites us to reflect on the eternal truths preached by Jesus, on his Passion, and on the end of life so as to rise up from our defects, from our sins; to rise up on Easter day in holy joy. (...) This is the time to meditate more on his word, his example; and to hope more in his grace ... Go forth in serenity. Let your whole heart be turned to Jesus--wholly and only and always.
BLESSED ALBERIONE'S PRAYER (cf. Preghiere, # 13, p. 311)
Lord, behold I am in your presence!
I, the poor one, find myself in the presence of the Rich;
I, the weak am in the presence of the offended Father.
I trust in you; I am sure I will not be abandoned.
Help me to think in accordance to Truth;
to desire in accordance to justice
and to trust in your Mercy.
I shall say often: "Lord, you are my all; I am your poor nothingness."
FIRST READING: I Cor 8:9 & Phil 2:6-11--PERSONAL REFLECTION
WORDS OF POPE FRANCIS: "Christ's Grace" (cf. Lenten Message 2014, "Rich Because We Are Poor")
God does not reveal himself cloaked in worldly power and wealth but rather in weakness and poverty: "though He was rich, yet for our sake he became poor ..." Christ, the eternal Son of God, one with the Father in power and glory, chose to be poor; he came amongst us and drew near to each of us; he set aside his glory and emptied himself so that he could be like us in all things. God's becoming man is a great mystery! But the reason for all this is his love, a love which is grace, generosity, a desire to draw near, a love which does not hesitate to offer itself in sacrifice for the beloved. Charity, love, is sharing with the one we love in all things. Love makes us similar, it creates equality, it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. (...)
It is striking that the Apostle states that we were set free, not by Christ's riches but by his poverty ... So what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? (...) What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of his love. Christ's poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and bearing our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God's infinite mercy to us. Christ's poverty is the greatest treasure of all. Jesus' wealth is that of his boundless confidence in God the Father, his constant trust, his desire always and only to do the Father's will and give glory to him. Jesus is rich in the same way a child feels loved and who loves its parents, without doubting their love and tenderness for an instant. Jesus' wealth lies in his being a Son.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
BLESSED ALBERIONE'S PRAYER (cf. Preghiere, # 8, p. 309)
Divine Heart of Jesus,
inflame my soul with your holy love which is your gift.
I do not seek anything else.
You are my all good.
You are my peace and my trust, my sure refuge.
Grant that also of me it could be said:
"He is not after other things; he gives all.
He seeks nothing else but God.
He rests in God; he is rich only in God.
He flies with God; he runs, exults;
he is free, he is happy."
SONG: "Center of My Life" (Paul Inwood) or another appropriate song
WORDS OF POPE FRANCIS: "Our Witness" (cf. Lenten Message 2014)
In every time and place God continues to save mankind and the world through the poverty of Christ, who makes himself poor in the sacraments, in his word and in his Church, which is a people of the poor. God's wealth passes not through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our personal and communal poverty, enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.
In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it. Destitution is not the same as poverty: destitution is poverty without faith, without support, without hope. There are three types of destitution: material, moral and spiritual. Material destitution affects those living in conditions opposed to human dignity: those who lack basic rights and needs such as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity to develop and grow culturally. In response to this destitution, the Church offers her help, her diakonia, in meeting these needs and binding these wounds which disfigure the face of humanity. (...) No less a concern is moral destitution, which consists in slavery to vice and sin. How much pain is caused in families because one of their members--often a young person--is in thrall to alcohol, drugs, gambling or pornography! How any people no longer see meaning in life or prospects for the future; how many have lost hope! (...) We experience spiritual destitution when we turn away from God and reject his love. If we think we don't need God who reaches out to us through Christ, because we believe we can make do on our own. We are headed for a fall. God alone can truly save and set us free. (...)
The Gospel is the real antidote to spiritual destitution ... The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds of this message of mercy and hope! (...) It means following and imitating Jesus, who sought out the poor and sinners as a shepherd lovingly seeks his lost sheep. In union with Jesus, we can courageously open up new paths of evangelization and human promotion. (...)
Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts; no self-denial is real without the dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt. May the Holy Spirit, through whom we are "as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything" (2 Cor 6:10), sustain us in our resolutions.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
BLESSED ALBERIONE'S PRAYER (cf. Preghiere, # 6, p. 308)
Divine Master,
teach me and draw me in the ways of your cherished love.
Grant me to learn your humility,
that I may love and seek poverty;
that I may mortify myself interiorly and exteriorly;
that I may love in everything your will.
Have mercy on me.
Please infuse in me your preferences.
Have mercy on my poor soul!
SONG: "In these Days of Lenten Journey" (Ricky Manalo) or another appropriate song
GOSPEL: Mk 10:17-31 "The Rich Man"--PERSONAL REFLECTION
WORDS OF BLESSED ALBERIONE (cf. Christ Model and Reward of Religious, p. 39 & 41)
Our only object in life is to win God and this is the basic idea behind poverty. In the practice of poverty, the religious has come to discover Heaven, to know God, our Supreme Good, intimately. He has come to know Him who is man's sole happiness and has realized that all else is affliction of spirit, distress and useless worry. Besides constituting obstacles to the love of God, small attachments, preferences, excesses regarding ambition, vanity, sensuality, personal comforts and satisfactions are a clear sign of little love for God. Certainly, the soul cannot yet say: "God is enough for me. My God and my all!" (...)
Let us constantly beg Jesus, Who was so very poor, to make our hearts like His. Let us ask Mary, who sought God alone, to make our hearts like hers. They are our models.
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE--ACT OF RESOLUTION
BLESSED ALBERIONE'S PRAYER (cf. Preghiere, # 14, p. 311)
Lord,
infuse in me that charity similar to the love you have for me.
Grant me to love you the way you love me, oh God of charity!
Your love is a perpetual love:
"I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jer 31:3).
Yours is a disinterested love
because you love me only to shower upon me your benefits.
Yours is a generous love for you give yourself totally to me.
Your love foresees and provides;
in fact you loved me before I could understand your love.
I understand your heart:
"My delight is to abide with the children of men" (Prov 8:31).
Grant me, Lord, to love you continually,
with a love that is pure, generous, ongoing.
SONG: "Only This I Want" (Dan Schutte) or another appropriate song
A DECADE OF ROSARY: The Mystery of Light: "The Proclamation of God's Kingdom and the Call to Conversion" (N.B. At the beginning of each "Hail Mary" a special intention may be announced.)
For the family of creation, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the family of nations, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For our own nation, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the Church, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For all families, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the Pauline Family, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the materially destitute, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the morally destitute, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For the spiritually destitute, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
For each of us, "Hail Mary, full of grace ..."
BLESSED ALBERIONE'S PRAYER (cf. Preghiere, # 11, p. 310)
My Crucified Master,
I understand your teaching
"If you wish to come after me,
deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me."
This is the way which unites me more intimately to you
and obtains for me an abundant flow of grace:
"Willingly I glory in my weaknesses
that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (II Cor 12:9).
Along the way of Calvary,
I might fall under the weight of the Cross,
but I will immediately cry out to you
who also fell to lift up those who fall.
All my trust is in you
because you are, oh God, my strength (II Sam 22:2).
EUCHARISTIC BENEDICTION may follow.
SONG: "The Cry of the Poor" (John Foley) or another appropriate song
***
ARCHIVES: Cf. PDDM website: www.pddm.us and click on the icon "Pauline Centenary Pastoral Tools" for the following back issues of Adoration guides.
1. Adoration Guide for October 2013: Feast of the Divine Master: "JESUS MASTER: He Imparts the Light of Faith"
2. Adoration Guide for November 2013: At the Conclusion of the Year of Faith: "Light of Faith"
3. Adoration Guide for New Year's Eve 2013: "The Word Became Flesh ... The Word Became Bread"
4. Adoration Guide for January 2014: Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul: "Saint Paul's Mistica-Metanoia-Missio Experience"
5. Adoration Guide for February 2014: On the 90th Anniversary of the PDDM Foundation (February 10, 2014): "Jesus Is Your Only Love"
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM
3700 North Cornelia Avenue
Fresno, CA-U.S.A.
Tel. (559) 275-9978
