Ideas for the Holy Hour in March

by Ottavio De Bertolis

In this season of Lent, the Holy Hour is more suitable than ever for entering into the mystery of the Passion of the Lord: I remind you that it is a continuous hour of prayer that takes place on Thursday evening, welcoming the Lord's invitation to keep vigil and pray, with the intention of offering to the Lord love and reparation for one's own sins and those of consecrated souls.

In this time we are living in, I would also like to suggest that our Holy Hours also be offered for the victims of injustice and terrorism, to implore from Christ the supreme good of peace and reconciliation in that sort of "third world war" , as the Pope called it, which we are experiencing. The blood of Christ that we see flowing to the ground in Gethsemane reminds us of the blood of the martyrs who are killed simply for being Christians, and in many places in the world Christians are persecuted to the point of death for the name of Christ.

The scheme of this prayer is very simple, and I propose it again, reminding you that it can be done anywhere, at home or in church, alone or in community. In itself, only one uninterrupted hour of prayer is required, and this space can be "filled" in any way, as long as it is suitable for meditating or contemplating the Passion of the Lord. We can enter into prayer by retracing history: here it will be how Christ our Lord entered Gethsemane with some of his disciples, asked them to watch and pray, went away to pray and learned obedience to the Father from the things he suffered. It could be very useful to take a Gospel and read, in whole or in part, the episode of the agony. So I will ask for a grace: here it will be to intimately know the love of the Heart of Christ to be able to love Him in return as He deserves, watching over and praying as He asks of me now. Then I consider what the people in the scene do: Christ the Lord, the Apostles, the angel who comforts the Savior; what they say; I will try to linger in the details, even repeating, for example, the words, or observing the scene, as if I were present there. I will remain for a long time in this devout contemplation and deep listening, and I imagine myself present there, as in fact I am, because by the power of the Holy Spirit prayer takes me right there. What do I feel like asking, what should I do, what words do I feel addressed to? I consider how Jesus humbles himself, accepting to be rejected and forgotten by us, how he hides in humility, contrasting his meekness with my presumption, his charity with my ingratitude, etc. Then I will stop in prayer, for a long time, speaking to Him with much familiarity and much interior affection; I will let myself be supported by his prayer, I will explain to him what I feel, always remaining in devout contemplation. I can also stay silent, or repeat, almost like a litany, short, very simple words that flow from my heart. Finally I will end with an Our Father, or with the prayer "Soul of Christ" or with the Litany of the Sacred Heart.