Lent is presented to us as a renewed opportunity to listen to the call God made to Abraham: “Leave your land” (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1880). In the spirituality of the Assumption, this “departure” is not an isolated event but a constant need to move away from attachments and selfishness in order to rise toward the supernatural (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1880). Accompanying Jesus on His journey toward Easter therefore requires a disposition of the heart that seeks true interior freedom.
Accompanying the Lord in the desert and toward Calvary implies a process of spiritual purification. True Lenten mortification consists in “dying to lower attractions” and to the “old self,” allowing the grace placed within us to shine fully (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1880). It is not a meaningless exercise in deprivation, but rather a way of “cutting the threads” that bind us to comfort so that our soul may freely journey toward God (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1880).
This spiritual detachment allows us to “remain as close as possible to Jesus Christ,” learning to judge all reality in His light (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1842). Only when the heart is “dead to itself” and given over to goodness can it find fulfillment in the will of the Father (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1842).
The perspective of the Assumption invites us not to see the earth merely as a place of exile, but as a “place of glory for God” (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1841). During this Lenten season, we are called to work for the coming of the Kingdom of God, both within ourselves and in others (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1841).
The essence of Christianity is the sacrifice of Christ, who left His happiness to embrace work and the cross (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1841). Therefore, our faith should not seek only personal blessedness but should actively commit us to the spread of the Gospel, using the same means Christ chose: the humble means of faith and abandonment into God’s hands (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1841).
Our interior accompaniment of Jesus must culminate in a transformation that leads us to Christian action. Saint Marie Eugénie insisted that each of us has a mission on earth (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1841). By conforming ourselves to Christ in His self-giving, we learn that the purpose of Christian education and spiritual life is to form souls capable of finding Jesus in all knowledge and acting as His representatives in the world (Marie Eugénie of Jesus 1842).
May this Lent be a time to fix our gaze on Jesus Christ and, with renewed and detached hearts, work joyfully for the expansion of His Kingdom. By following His steps, we discover that sacrifice is the necessary prelude to the joy of the Resurrection.