Letting Love consume us

Living Lent During The Eucharistic Revival

Something is going to consume us. We are wired that way. If we don’t choose what we want to consume us, something or someone will. Our hearts desire a “one thing.”

Our Human Drive

This human drive for a “one thing” leaves our spirits longing to pour ourselves into something or someone we love. We want to be centered, connected, grounded and rooted deeply in something or someone. This drive for an undivided, passionate love is written across history, literature, modern media, and in our very bodies and souls. Victor Hugo, author of the 1862 classic Les Miserables, writes, “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.” Even Nicholas Sparks’ popular chick-flick, The Notebook, dreams of this undivided love; “I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.” A gym-goer’s t-shirt begs us to “find your passion, and let it consume you.”

MORGAN MARTENS is a lifelong member of the Diocese of Norwich and strives to bring the light of Christ to everyone she encounters.

Something or someone has to drive us. But these exclamations of this drive or desire are not the fullness of our deepest desire.

We want a singular love. We want to lose ourselves into a “one thing.” Our deepest human desire is for Love. This Love we long for is a person; one person.

“My heart is restless until I rest in You,” St. Augustine says of God.

THE FIRST STATION: Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die

Consider how Jesus Christ, after being scourged and crowned with thorns, was unjustly condemned by Pilate to die on the cross. (Pause)

Jesus, we ask that You call young men and women today to publicly accept Your invitation to follow You in spite of what others may think or say. Give to them a passion for reaching out through Your love to the needs of Your brothers and sisters.

Wake It Up

Many of us have lost sight of this drive for passionate love. Would you agree? It is silenced in us, often from a very young age. Silenced by disappointment and dissatisfaction, silenced because we are afraid to ask for what we want. That is not the end of our story, though. A desire for the divine is a desire for Love, and this desire is never totally extinguishable. It is the deepest desire in us.

If this desire seems distant from you, wake it up! Wake it up with the Eucharist! By sitting with Love in the Eucharist, Love Himself will set our hearts ablaze again, little by little. So, let us begin.

CAN LOVE BE OUR “ONE THING?”

If God is Love (1 Jn 4:8) and God is the Word Made Flesh, then the Word Made Flesh is Love. If the Word was made flesh and is dwelling among us in the Eucharist (Jn 1:14), how can we keep ourselves from basking in His presence? He is like the sun and we are like sunflowers; sunflowers are content to soak in the sun’s warmth. Sunflowers also turn to face the sun as it moves through the day.

We must go be in the presence of Love because it is what our hearts are made for. His singular Love is what our hearts want and can inflame all other loves in our lives.

This Lent, can Love be our

“one thing?”Can we simplify our lives to focus more on the “one thing?” Can we allow this desire to warm our hearts and drive our decisions? Can we grow towards Him this Lent, like sunflowers to the sun?

If we believe God is who He says He is, if we believe it is Jesus Who dwells in the tabernacle, then the habit of visiting Him in our churches will change our lives. We can come as we are, sit with Him, He says, “Come, sit and stay.”

A Lenten Resolution

Let us make a point of visiting Jesus in our churches during this first Lent of our national Eucharistic Revival. We can make a schedule and carve out even a little time each day. If we absolutely cannot get to the church, let us at least visit Him in our hearts. He is dwelling among us so that we can abide with Him. (Jn 15:4) Perhaps we can even stay in the church, near the Eucharist, just longer than we’re comfortable with. The practice of simply staying pays off.

In time, He will fulfill all our desires with Himself. He alone is the “one thing” that fills our human desire for Love, for He Himself is Love. As He becomes our “one thing,” our every action will be centered on Love, and we will be grounded in Love, grounded in ourselves. And as we sit in His presence, we will come to know Him and ourselves. Let us go, go to Jesus in the Eucharist this Lent.

He loves you, don’t forget it.

Consider Jesus as He walked this road with the cross on His shoulders, thinking of us, and offering to His Father, on our behalf, the death He was about to suffer. (Pause) Jesus, help those You call to see in the cross the symbol of union with You. Give to them the zeal and talent to minister to those who are burdened with pain, sorrow, confusion and alienation. Let them see that in the cross is life.

His Cross