Ideas for the Holy Hour in February
by Ottavio De Bertolis
This month begins with the feast of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple; at this beginning of the year we can take inspiration from the Gospel of this feast for our Holy Hour, remembering that this pious practice is done precisely to offer the Heart of Jesus love and reparation for the sins committed by consecrated souls, according to its precise request to Saint Margaret Mary.
We can therefore begin our time of prayer by invoking as usual the light and grace of the Holy Spirit, making explicit our desire to offer Jesus love and gratitude in reparation for the many ingratitudes with which he is offended, by all of us and in particular by those who should be most faithful to him, precisely the souls consecrated to him. So let's read and reread the text of the Gospel: here it will be Luke 2, 22-40, the story of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. At the school of Saint Ignatius, after having read and reread the story several times, I will stop contemplating the scene, and almost entering into it: I observe the people, the events that unfold, I listen to what they say or could still say, I notice in detail what happens. I try to enter the picture myself, so that what I see or feel is not only external to me, but, in some way, involves me as something that is contemporary with me, that is also happening to me, that asks for my participation and my response. Here I will pause and have a conversation with Jesus, according to what I feel I must or can say. From the conversation I can then also return to consider the facts narrated, to understand them in their meaning or part of the meaning that now challenges me, to observe what they do and listen to what they say, and return to the conversation again, so that there are as of continuous references between the text I meditated or imagined and the conversation I personally have with Jesus or with the other people present there. The whole thing will last a full hour and continues, ending with an Our Father.
In this month, I would particularly like to highlight how Jesus is offered to fulfill that Scripture that says “Every firstborn male will be sacred to the Lord.” But Jesus does not actually need that rite, because he has always been consecrated to God, and his consecration is so strong that it also makes us consecrated to Him. In fact, in the Gospel Jesus states that "for them I consecrate myself". Saint Paul also says that Christ Jesus has become for us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification (i.e.: consecration), and redemption”. His Heart is consecrated to the Father because only in Him can it be said that what is written is fulfilled: "you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength". Jesus therefore gives us his heart so that we too can love his and our father as he himself loves him, adhere to him with all of ourselves: Jesus is the foundation and origin of every consecration, since he gives us his Spirit . And “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Let us therefore contemplate in this passage or scene that Jesus offers himself, but in Him, through Him and with Him we are all offered and presented to the Father in one Spirit with Him, and we become consecrated to the Father together with Him. Let us therefore ask for grace to choose and desire for us what He chose and desired for himself.