In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My immaculate Mother St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, and to seed for me.

As we place our focus in the heart of Christ, present in our tabernacle, we simply ask Jesus

to help us have a renewed spirit of penance.

We find ourselves on the third Sunday of Lent, cycle C, and we're all a spiritual work

in progress.

It's not a question of having a perfect record

where we went without candy or chocolate up to now

or deprived ourselves of snack or looking at Twitter excessively, whatever it is.

But it is a happy time, though we need to go against the grain, to encounter Christ.

And the Holy Eucharist, his true presence,

enlightens us on the power of penance,

which is tantamount to sharing,

albeit in a small way, in the cross of Jesus.

Our Catholic faith tells us that when the cross of Jesus makes itself present

in the Eucharistic liturgy, the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, that bread and wine change.

Only the properties remain, and now Jesus is truly present.

In analogous way, to the degree that I connect with Jesus' cross, with my mind and heart and will,

to that degree, the Lord leaves His true presence. When we use the word sanctify, that we want to be sanctified in these Lenton observances,

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