DURING this “retreat” time this past week, the words “Colossians 2:1” flashed in my heart one morning.
LENTEN RETREAT
Breaking History
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 1
ASH WEDNESDAY
by Commander Richard Brehn, NOAA Corps
Scroll to the bottom to listen to the podcast of each meditation if you wish. Remember, you can find each day here: Prayer Retreat.
WE are living in extraordinary times.
And in the midst of them, here you are. No doubt, you probably feel powerless in the face of the many changes taking place in our world—an insignificant player, a person with little to no impact on the world around you, let alone the course of history. Perhaps you feel as though you are tied to the rope of history and being dragged behind the Great Ship of Time, tossing and turning helplessly in its wake. Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Necessity of Faith
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 2
NEW! I am now adding podcasts to this Lenten Retreat (including yesterday). Scroll to the bottom to listen through the media player.
BEFORE I can write further, I sense Our Lady saying that, unless we have faith in God, nothing in our spiritual lives will change. Or as St. Paul put it…
…without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb 11:6)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Being Faithful
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 3
Dear friends, this is not the meditation I had planned for today. However, I have been dealing with one little crisis after another for the past two weeks and, in truth, have been writing these meditations after midnight, averaging only four hours sleep a night the past week. I am exhausted. And so, after putting out several little fires today, I prayed about what to do—and this writing came immediately to mind. It is, for me, one of the most important “words” on my heart this past year, as it has helped me through so many trials by simply reminding myself to “be faithful.” To be certain, this message is an important part of this Lenten Retreat. Thanks for understanding.
I apologize that there is no podcast for today… I’m simply out of gas, as it’s almost 2am. I have an important “word” on Russia that I will publish shortly… something I’ve been praying about since last summer. Thanks for your prayers…
The Good Death
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 4
IT says in Proverbs,
Without a vision the people lose restraint. (Prov 29:18)
In the first days of this Lenten Retreat, then, it is imperative that we have a vision of what it means to be a Christian, the vision of the Gospel. Or, as the prophet Hosea says:
My people perish for want of knowledge! (Hosea 4:6)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Inner Self
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 5
ARE you still with me? It’s now Day 5 of our retreat, and I am certain many of you are struggling in these first days to stay committed. But take that, perhaps, as a sign that you might need this retreat more than you realize. I can say that this is the case for myself.
Today, we continue expanding the vision of what it means to be a Christian and who we are in Christ…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Blessed Helpers
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 6
Artist Unknown
AND so, the spiritual or “interior” life consists in co-operating with grace in order that Jesus’s divine life may live in and through me. So if Christianity consists in Jesus being formed in me, how will God make this possible? Here is a question for you: how did God make it possible the first time for Jesus to be formed in the flesh? The answer is through the Holy Spirit and Mary.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Self-Knowledge
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 7
MY brother and I used to share the same room growing up. There were some nights that we couldn’t stop giggling. Inevitably, we’d hear the footsteps of dad coming down the hallway, and we’d shrink beneath the covers pretending we were asleep. Then the door would open…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Humility
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 8
IT is one thing to have self-knowledge; to see clearly the reality of one’s spiritual poverty, lack of virtue, or deficit in charity—in a word, to see the abyss of one’s misery. But self-knowledge alone is not enough. It must be wed to humility in order for grace to take effect. Compare again Peter and Judas: both came face to face with the truth of their inner corruption, but in the first case self-knowledge was wed with humility, while in the latter, it was wed to pride. And as the Proverbs say, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” [1]Prov 16:18
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Prov 16:18 |
|---|
The Tribunal of Mercy
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 9
THE first path by which the Lord can begin to transform a soul is opened when that person, seeing themselves in the light of truth, acknowledges their poverty and need for Him in a spirit of humility. This is a grace and gift initiated by the Lord Himself who loves the sinner so much, that He seeks him or her out, most especially when they are enclosed in the darkness of sin. As Matthew the Poor wrote…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Making a Good Confession
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 10
JUST as important as going to Confession on a regular basis, is knowing also how to make a good Confession. This is more important than many realize, since it is the truth which sets us free. What happens, then, when we obscure or hide the truth?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
My Boo-boo…Your Benefit
For those who are taking the Lenten Retreat, I made a boo-boo. There are 40 days in Lent, not counting Sundays (because they are the “Day of the Lord“). However, I did a meditation for last Sunday. So as of today, we are essentially caught up. I will resume Day 11 on Monday morning.
However, this provides a wonderful unintended pause for those who need a pause—that is, for those who are despairing as they look into the mirror, those who are discouraged, afraid, and disgusted to the point that they practically hate themselves. Self-knowledge must lead to the Savior—not self-hatred. I have two writings for you that are perhaps critical at this moment, otherwise, one could lose the most necessary perspective in the interior life: that of keeping one’s eyes always fixed upon Jesus and His mercy…
Mercy Through Mercy
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 11
THE third path, which opens the way to God’s presence and action in one’s life, is intrinsically tied to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But here, it has to do, not with the mercy you receive, but the mercy you give.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Docility
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 12
TO “prepare the way of the Lord,” the prophet Isaiah entreats us to make the road straight, the valleys lifted up, and “every mountain and hill made low.” In Day 8 we meditated On Humility—leveling those mountains of pride. But the evil brothers of pride are the foothills of ambition and self-will. And the bulldozer of these is humility’s sister: meekness.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A Pilgrim Heart
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 13
THERE is a word stirring in my heart today: pilgrim. What is a pilgrim, or more specifically, a spiritual pilgrim? Here, I am not speaking of one who is a mere tourist. Rather a pilgrim is one who sets out in search of something, or rather, of Someone.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Losing One’s Salvation
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 14
SALVATION is a gift, a pure gift from God that no one earns. It is freely given because “God so loved world.” [1]John 3:16 In one of the more moving revelations from Jesus to St. Faustina, He beckons:
Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of mercy are burning Me—clamoring to be spent… I want to keep pouring them out upon souls; souls just don’t want to believe in My goodness. —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 50
The Apostle Paul wrote that God “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” [2]1 Tim 2:4 So there is no question of God’s generosity and burning desire to see every single man and woman remain with Him for eternity. However, it is equally true that we can not only refuse this gift, but forfeit it, even after we have been “saved.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
An Intimate Testimony
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 15
IF you’ve ever been to one of my retreats before, then you’ll know I prefer to speak from the heart. I find it leaves room for the Lord or Our Lady to do whatever they want—like change the subject. Well, today is one of those moments. Yesterday, we reflected on the gift of salvation, which is also a privilege and calling to bear fruit for the Kingdom. As St. Paul said in Ephesians…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Resting in the Stern
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 16
THERE is a reason, brothers and sisters, why I feel Heaven wants to do this Lenten Retreat this year, that up until now, I have not voiced. But I feel this is the moment to speak about it. The reason is that a violent spiritual Storm is bearing down all around us. The winds of “change” are blowing hard; the waves of confusion are spilling over the bow; the Barque of Peter is beginning to rock… and in the midst of it, Jesus is inviting you and me to the stern.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Of Desire
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 17
from Christ at Rest, by Hans Holbein the Younger (1519)
TO rest with Jesus in the Storm is not a passive rest, as though we are to remain oblivious to the world around us. It is not…
…the rest of inactivity, but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and affections—of will, heart, imagination, conscience—because each has found in God the ideal sphere for its satisfaction and development. —J. Patrick, Vine’s Expository, p. 529; cf. Hastings’ Bible Dictionary
Think of the Earth and its orbit. The planet is in perpetual motion, always encircling the Sun, thereby generating the seasons; always rotating, generating night and day; always faithful to the course set out for it by the Creator. There you have the picture of what it means to “rest”: to live perfectly in the Divine Will.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Time is Love
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 18
As the deer longs for streams of water…
PERHAPS you feel as incapable of holiness as I do in continuing to write this Lenten Retreat. Good. Then we have both entered a critical point in self-knowledge—that apart from God’s grace, we can do nothing. But that does not mean that we should do nothing.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Perseverance
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 19
BLESSED is the one who perseveres.
Why are you discouraged, my dear brother or sister? It is in perseverance that love is proven, not in perfection, which is the fruit of perseverance.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Christian Perfection
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 20
SOME might find this the most intimidating and discouraging Scripture in the Bible.
Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt 5:48)
Why would Jesus say such a thing to mere mortals like you and me who grapple daily with doing God’s will? Because to be holy as God is holy is when you and I will be happiest.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A Revolution of the Mind
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 21
EVERY now again in my research, I’ll stumble across a website that takes exception to my own because they say, “Mark Mallett claims to hear from Heaven.” My first reaction is, “Gee, doesn’t every Christian hear the voice of the Lord?” No, I don’t hear an audible voice. But I certainly hear God speaking through the Mass Readings, morning prayer, the Rosary, the Magisterium, my bishop, my spiritual director, my wife, my readers—even a sunset. For God says in Jeremiah…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Powerful Light of Purity
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 22
A revolution of the mind becomes the gateway to the sixth path that opens our hearts to the presence of God. For the intellect and will are what protect and foster purity of heart, and Jesus said…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Mastery of Self
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 23
LAST time, I spoke about remaining steadfast on the Narrow Pilgrim Road, “rejecting temptation to your right, and illusion to your left.” But before I speak further about the important subject of temptation, I think it will be helpful to know more of the nature of a Christian—of what happens to you and me in Baptism—and what doesn’t.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Innocence
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 24
WHAT a gift we have through the Sacrament of Baptism: the innocence of a soul is restored. And should we sin after that, the Sacrament of Penance restores that innocence again. God wants you and me to be innocent because He delights in the beauty of a pristine soul, re-made again in His image. Even the most hardened sinner, if they appeal to God’s mercy, are restored to a primordial beauty. One could say that in such a soul, God sees himself. Moreover, He delights in our innocence because He knows that is when we are most capable of joy.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Of Temptation
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 25
The Temptation by Eric Armusik
I remember a scene from the film The Passion of the Christ when Jesus kisses the cross after they place it on His shoulders. That’s because He knew His suffering would redeem the world. Likewise, some of the saints in the early Church deliberately traveled to Rome so that they could be martyred, knowing that it would hasten their union with God.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Simple Way of Jesus
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 26
EVERYTHING I have said up to this point in our retreat can be summed up in this way: life in Christ consists in doing the will of the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is that simple! In order to grow in holiness, to reach even the very heights of sanctity and union with God, it isn’t necessary to become a theologian. In fact, that might even be a stumbling block for some.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Grace Moment
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 27
WHEN God entered human history in the flesh through the person of Jesus, one could say that He baptized time itself. Suddenly, God—to whom all eternity is present—was walking through seconds, minutes, hours, and days. Jesus was revealing that time itself is an intersection between Heaven and earth. His communion with the Father, His solitude in prayer, and His whole ministry were all measured in time and eternity at once…. And then He turned to us and said…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
All Things in Love
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 28
FOR all the beautiful teachings Jesus gave—the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the Last Supper discourse in John, or the many profound parables—Christ’s most eloquent and powerful sermon was the unspoken word of the Cross: His Passion and death. When Jesus said He came to do the will of the Father, it wasn’t a matter of faithfully checking off a Divine To Do list, a kind of scrupulous fulfilling of the letter of the law. Rather, Jesus went deeper, further, and more intensely in His obedience, for He did all things in love to the very end.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Precedence of Prayer
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 29
EVERYTHING we’ve discussed so far in this Lenten Retreat is equipping you and me to soar toward the heights of sanctity and union with God (and remember, with Him, all things are possible). And yet—and this is of utmost importance—without prayer, it would be like someone who has laid out a hot air balloon upon the ground and set up all their equipment. The pilot tries to climb into the gondola, which is the will of God. He is familiar with his flying manuals, which are the Scriptures and the Catechism. His basket is tethered to the balloon by the ropes of the Sacraments. And last, he has stretched out his balloon along the ground—that is, he has conceded a certain willingness, abandonment, and desire to fly toward Heaven…. But so long as the burner of prayer remains unlit, the balloon—which is his heart—will never expand, and his spiritual life will remain grounded.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Prayer from the Heart
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 30
GOD knows, there have been a million books written on the science of prayer. But lest we become discouraged from the beginning, remember that it was not the Scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the law that Jesus held nearest His heart… but the little ones.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Goal of Prayer
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 31
I have to laugh, because I am the last person I would have ever imagined to be speaking about prayer. Growing up, I was hyper, constantly moving, always ready to play. I had a hard time sitting still at Mass. And books, to me, were a waste of good playtime. So, by the time I graduated from high school, I had probably read less than ten books in my whole life. And while I did read my Bible, the prospect of sitting down and praying for any length of time was challenging, to say the least.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Praying Heavenward
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 32
THE beginning of prayer is desire, desire to love God, who has loved us first. Desire is the “pilot light” which keeps the burner of prayer lit, always ready to mingle with the “propane” of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who then ignites, animates, and fills our hearts with grace, enabling us to begin the ascent, along the Way of Jesus, to union with the Father. (And by the way, when I say “union with God”, what I mean is a real and actual union of wills, desires, and love such that God lives totally and freely in you, and you in Him). And so, if you have stayed with me this long in this Lenten Retreat, I have no doubt that the pilot light of your heart is lit and ready to burst into flame!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Soaring in the Spirit
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 33
THOMAS Merton once said, “There are a thousand ways to the Way.” But there are some foundational principles when it comes to the structure of our prayer-time that can help us advance more quickly toward communion with God, especially in our weakness and struggles with distraction.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Second Burner
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 34
NOW here is the thing, my dear brothers and sisters: the interior life, like a hot air balloon, has not one, but two burners. Our Lord was very clear about this when He said:
You shall love the Lord your God…[and] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:33)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On Time and Distractions
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 35
OF course, one of the great obstacles and seeming tensions between one’s interior life and the exterior demands of one’s vocation, is time. “I don’t have time to pray! I’m a mother! I don’t have time! I work all day! I’m a student! I travel! I run a company! I’m a priest with a big parish… I don’t have time!“
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Untethering the Heart
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 36
THE “hot air balloon” represents one’s heart; the “gondola basket” is the will of God; the “propane” is the Holy Spirit; and the two “burners” of love of God and neighbour, when lit by the “pilot light” of our desire, fill our hearts with the Flame of Love, enabling us to soar toward union with God. Or so it would seem. What is it that is still holding me back…?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Ties that Bind
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 37
IF there are “tethers” that we must detach from our hearts, that is, worldly passions and inordinate desires, we most certainly want to be bound by the graces that God Himself has given for our salvation, namely, the Sacraments.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Following in the Crucified’s Footsteps
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 38
THUS far in our retreat, I have mainly focused on the interior life. But as I said a few days ago, the spiritual life is not only a calling into communion with God, but a commission to go out into the world and…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Our Lady, Co-Pilot
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 39
IT’s certainly possible to purchase a hot air balloon, set it all up, turn on the propane, and begin to inflate it, doing it all on one’s own. But with the help of another experienced aviator, it would become so much easier, quicker and safer to get into the skies.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Night of Faith
LENTEN RETREAT
Day 40
AND so, we have come to the end of our retreat… but I assure you, it is just the beginning: the beginning of the great battle of our times. It is the beginning of what St. John Paul II called…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Let Him Rise in You!
Embracing Hope, by Lea Mallett
JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE TOMB!
…now let Him rise in you,
that again, He may walk among us,
that again, He may heal our wounds
that again, He may dry our tears
and that again, we may look into His eyes of love.
May the Risen Jesus rise in you.
Thoughts from the Charcoal Fire
BASKING in the warmth of the charcoal fire Jesus has lit through our Lenten Retreat; sitting in the glow of His nearness and Presence; listening to the ripples of His ineffable Mercy gently caressing the shore of my heart… I have a few random thoughts left over from our forty days of reflection.