Lenten Retreat Day, Presentation Associates
By Sr Christina Dolan
On Saturday 29th March, the Convent at Matlock welcomed about sixty visiting Presentation Associates and friends from a variety of locations, including Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester, Matlock, and Derby, all accompanied by Sisters from those places.
Our own local community was pleased to avail of an ‘in-house’ day of Prayer and Reflection on Pope Francis’ letter “Dilexit Nos” - He Loved Us. Father Jonathan Cotton, Priest of the Nottingham Diocese, led the group in what turned out to be a day of deep reflection and renewal.
Fr Jonathan’s presentation started with a show of Icons found in the Vatican museum, showing the love of Jesus represented by the symbol of the HEART, a symbol commonly used today to express love, devotion and care. Within Catholic circles devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus goes back centuries with pictures displayed in our homes constant reminders of God’s Love for His people; our Holy Father, in writing his letter at this moment in time, wishes to offer to the Church a fresh approach to the devotion, encouraging us to see in the Love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus a strong connection to the theme of Hope, to which this Holy Year of 2025 is dedicated.
Of the many icons shown on screen two especially are mentioned, that of Jesus in a loving embrace with His Mother and the one in which John the beloved Disciple rests on the shoulder of Jesus, listening to His heartbeat. In both these icons the love of their hearts is deeply sensed without the eye’s dependence on a visible depiction of a real human heart. One remembers the line from Antoine de Exupery’s ‘The Little Prince ‘ : It is only with the heart that you can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
St Paul’s is strongest when he makes reference to the human Jesus’ revelation of God’s Love “ ..nothing can come between us and the Love of Christ ...For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height, or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the Love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord. “ ( Romans 8)
The secularist age in which we live, some would say a ‘heartless age’, seems like a society confident in its own digital-world-conquering power, living for today, greedily and foolishly depleting Earth’s natural resources, seeking passing pleasures to bring fulfilment, indifferent to suffering humanity, a digital world governed only by market forces. Is this a world in need of a fresh look at the human Heart of Jesus who ‘makes visible’ the loving compassionate heart of the Divine? We and our world will be the richer when we rediscover the depth of God’s Love and compassion made visible in Christ Jesus - our Icon of Hope for a world in need of redemption.
The day of prayerful reflection ended with a warm vote of thanks to Father Jonathan, to Consuela, Associate coordinator, Marie our secretary and to the people who travelled from home to share in this rich contemplative experience.