03/04/2026
Seeing Oneself as a Loved Sinner this Lent
Dear Friends of St. Anne's Shrine,
This past January I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop in directing retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The Exercises are arranged in four weeks, usually over a thirty-day period and are taken from the conversion experience of Ignatius himself. The instructions of the First Week are to meditate on various aspects of sin in the world and in our personal lives. The grace being desired in this prayerful experience is to know and discover one’s sins. Having done that, the retreatant hopefully encounters forgiveness in Jesus and experiences oneself as a sinner but nevertheless loved by God.
We can view the season of Lent as a similar retreat experience of forty days. Discovering and admitting one’s sins is the first step. This might be a difficult step to honestly admit our sins and where we have strayed. We might resist doing so or avoid the hard work required to take such a personal inventory. Yet Lent is not intended to be a guilt trip for us to beat up on ourselves for making mistakes or acting contrary to the way God calls us. A spiritually healthy perspective is to examine our lives in the light of God’s love knowing that we are making the Lenten journey in the desert not alone but with the forgiving Christ. Through this experience the grace we hope to receive is to see oneself as a loved sinner.
Part of the mission of Saint Anne’s Shrine is to provide opportunities for people of all ages to experience God’s forgiveness and love. We do this in a variety of ways through the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacrament of reconciliation, in our Reflection Series and through retreats. Providing women and men a quiet and secluded place to stay overnight for a few days or a week to pray in God’s love is a true gift in our busy and distracting world. Your financial support makes such opportunities possible.
Recognizing the opportunities the Shrine provides for pilgrims to grow in their faith, a family in Massachusetts has offered to match each gift up to $50,000. Each dollar you contribute to the ministry of Saint Anne’s Shrine will be matched, up to a combined total of $100,000. Please consider making a sacrificial gift (saintannesshrine.org/donations) to the Shrine this Lenten season so we may continue to offer various retreat experiences and provide our visitors with an experience of God’s love.
May this season be a time of transformation for you as we journey together through the Lenten desert to the resurrection of Jesus. Kindly fill out our intention form (saintannesshrine.org/form) so we can remember your intentions in our Masses and prayers. Thank you for your generous support and may you have a blessed Easter!
Sincerely,
Rev. Brian J. Cummings, S.S.E.
Spiritual Director
