Franciscan Media

Don’t worry if it’s been a while since you’ve gone to confession—God is waiting to meet you there. Don’t settle for ashes alone when you can receive absolution and a fresh start!

– from Lent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta

When someone else comes to us and points out our own faults, we might not be very happy about it. But, when you think of it, that person often carries the same message Jesus carried to the Samaritan woman: take the living water, freely, and be renewed.

If we don’t take time to reflect on the ways we have been forgiven, it will be hard to be merciful to others. And yet we set this as our goal each time we pray the Our Father: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

– from The Hope of Lent

You must compare your heart to a garden. If we cultivate it well, it will yield good fruit. If we don’t keep an eye on it and tend it a little every day, our garden will be overrun with weeds, true? Therefore, take courage.

– St. Maria Domenica Mazzarello

– from Sisterhood of Saints

In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could harden our hearts, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of God’s boundless love, to taste his tenderness.

– from The Hope of Lent

Humility is the guardian and ornament of all virtues. If the spiritual building does not rest on it, it will fall into ruin.
–Thomas of Celano

– from Peace and Good