LENT -- THE GREAT RETREAT -- CATECHUMENS AND PENITENTS

This is the last day of our retreat.  It is also three days before we reach the threshold of Lent.  It is the time of Reconciliation; Conversion; Escape from the Slavery of Sin, all fueled by Faith, Hope and Charity.  Jesus Christ is our Leader, present to us through the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary.  This is the time when we link ourselves to the Leader and follow Him through the Desert to reach the cleansing waters of the Jordan and the Glory of the New Sinai, Jerusalem.
Lent is the time when we do what we do in memory of the early Penitents.  We clothe ourselves in sackcloth and cover our heads in ashes so that we can be closer to realizing the source of our being.  Once we accept that, we, with a changed heart, can more easily and humbly approach the Servant King to petition Him for the purification of our souls.  It is with this purified soul that we can experience the exaltation of His triumph over sin on the occasion of His Resurrection.
It is through the process of conversion and purification that we join the Catechumens.  They are in the process of a radical change of life.  A deep conversion.  They have submitted themselves to a long period of preparation.  They have devoted a large part of their lives to reflection and discernment about God in the light of the Church's guidance.  Lent is an intense time of retreat for them.  They have arrived at the peak of Alleluia Hill and they can now see Jerusalem and the Temple.  Far away, but finally within reach.  They have forty days of prayer, meditation and sacrifice before their cleansing in the Jordan, their illumination in the light of the Resurrection and their infusion of the Spirit in the Cenacle of their new parish church.  By accompanying them along the way of this powerful spiritual experience, we too will achieve a degree of conversion.  Just as God wants us to do.  
Our Lady of La Salette, reconciler of sinners,
Pray without ceasing for us who have recourse to thee.