During the days preceding Ash Wednesday, days during which worldlings devoted themselves to frivolous and often sinful amusements, the Church invited us to greater recollection and more generous sacrifice.
Did I check the sins which were committed and, did I, by repeated offerings of more fervent love, compensate for the lack of love, the forgetfulness, the baseness and unrestrained thirst for pleasure on the part of sinners?
The Sacred Host was taken from the obscurity of the tabernacle and all the faithful were invited to adore the Savior who is only too often forgotten and despised.
St. Anthony Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabites, was the first to conceive the idea of instituting Forty Hours' Adoration in expiation for the excesses committed during the Carnival on the days preceding Lent. God rewarded his zeal by many extraordinary favors at the altar. One day while he was celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass he was surrounded by angels resplendent with a heavenly light.
I also wish to increase my devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. How great is this mystery of the altar! I shall offer myself to Our Lord, and I shall offer Our Lord to the Father in compensating love for the forgetful world. I shall make more fervent efforts to spend time in adoration of Our Lord.
Suscipe, Sancte Pater, receive, Most Holy Father. Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas, receive Most Holy Trinity. What fervent love I will put into this offering of Jesus and myself to the adorable Trinity!
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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