 A couple of weeks ago, Sr. Mary Ruth asked me to facilitate her monthly “Youth Night at the Convent,” as she would be out of town on the scheduled evening.
I agreed and, after learning the topic, began thinking about the evening, particularly the chapel time, as that was not planned out and was open to my discretion. The day before the event, I still didn’t have much in mind. Then, as I was reading the book for our Monday morning study group, it hit me… In that week’s reflections, the writer, Fr. Michael Gaitley, touched on the idea of friendship with Jesus. In the book, Consoling the Heart of Jesus, he had also been sharing about the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary. Things started fitting together… On this Friday evening, with the night’s theme centering on friendship, why not pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart together? Why not meditate on the passage from John (15:14-15) where, at the Last Supper, Jesus calls His disciples “friends?” As I thought about this more in the coming days, I realized that this message wasn’t just for the young people…It was a reminder for me as well! My preparations for Youth Night were “a friendly reminder,” you might say, of an important aspect of my own relationship with Jesus. It is a friendship (amazing as that is!) I want to approach my spiritual life and practices in light of this reality, which had faded a bit in my mind. For example, as I think of my daily time for scriptural meditation, etc., my attitude shouldn’t just be: “I have to go to Chapel and get my prayers in.” Rather, “I get to go spend time with my Friend.” As we approach the season of Lent, this is a good motivation for me to get up early and make the extra effort to have this quality time…before the busyness of the day and its distractions crowd my mind. I hope that for you, also, this Lent may be a time of renewal in your friendship with Our Lord. Maybe this can be a friendly reminder for you, too.
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