Lent: a deep sense of reparation

"Let us give our mortification and penance (which have to be more intense during this time of Lent) a deep sense of reparation," Bishop Alvaro del Portillo advised us in a 1990 Letter.

We have just started Lent. I know you are expecting me to ask you for more prayer, and more generosity in the mortifications you offer for what fills my soul. And I too look forward to these moments of our family conversation, when I can confide in each one of you, to beg you to help me more, and give me your support. I would like your response to be like that of the sick person in the early years of the Work, who felt the weight of Opus Dei (everything still remained to be done!) and perceived that God was counting on a full and complete response from her, on her total self-sacrifice. That person, like so many others throughout the years, knew how to offer up great physical and moral sufferings in order to give Opus Dei its solid foundations, and to be such a firm support to our Father [Saint Josemaria].

Let us give our mortification and penance (which have to be more intense during this time of Lent) a deep sense of reparation, so that each of us can say with Saint Paul: I make up in my own body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, for his body, which is the Church.(Col 1:24). Try to bring the people you know to the sacrament of Confession, receiving it with deeper gratitude yourselves, and with greater devotion (Letter, 1 March 1990).