Wednesday, February 18 : Saint John-Paul II

Lent is the time for entering into ourselves. It is a time of special intimacy with God in the depths of our hearts and consciences. And it is within this interior intimacy with God that the main work of the Lenten season is accomplished: the work of conversion. In this hidden depth, in this intimacy with God in naked truth of heart and conscience, resound words like those of the Psalm in today’s liturgy, one of the most profound confessions the human person has ever made before God: “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; / in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. / Thoroughly wash me from my guilt / and of my sin cleanse me. / For I acknowledge my offense, / and my sin is before me always: / Against you only have I sinned, / and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps 50[51]:3-6). These are words that cleanse, words that transform. They transform us interiorly. Let us recite them often during Lent. And above all, let us try to renew the spirit that animates them, the interior spirit which has given these very words a power of conversion. For Lent is essentially an invitation to conversion. The works of piety of which today’s gospel speaks open the road to this conversion, Let us put them into practise so far as possible. But first of all let us seek to encounter God interiorly within the totality of our life, in everything out of which it is made up, so we can arrive at that conversion in depth of which the penitential psalm in today’s liturgy is so full.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team