Our Hope This Lent is a special time of grace and transformation as we all come together as “Pilgrims of Hope” on the penitential path to Jesus, our Hope and the Divine Mercy Incarnate. Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday are always blessed celebrations, but this Jubilee year, we should put extra effort into our annual rejoicing! That’s why we offer you, our Marian Family, this special Lenten devotional. Jesus, Our Hope starts with Ash Wednesday, March 5, and continues past Easter Sunday, April 20, through to the Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday on April 27. Each day offers an inspiring meditation based on the day’s liturgical readings, and references to passages from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina for further reading. You’ll feel like you’re there: listening to Jesus teaching at the Temple; seeing Him heal the man at Bethesda; and hearing the crowds around you as they discuss who Jesus truly is. After all, Jesus is our hope. Not world leaders. Not better policies. Not earthly power, economics, or strategies from the world. Jesus is our hope. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). True, God’s love for the world right now looks like Christ on the Cross, rather than worldly triumph. Jesus is our hope in the near term and in an ultimate sense. In the near term, Jesus is our hope for truth to answer the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Jesus is our hope for grace to build on nature, to redeem and sanctify a wounded world, to marry time with eternity, space and matter with spirit, and to prepare the world for the final consummation when God shall be “all in all” (see 1 Cor 15:28). Jesus is the Light of the World, and the darkness shall never overcome Him. The Just Judge In the ultimate sense, Jesus is the Lord of History, the Just Judge. He shall make all wrongs right, wipe away every tear, and ensure the final triumph of good over evil. But until the Day of the Lord is at hand in a full, final, and awesome sense, we continue our pilgrimage in the long Lent of this life. We persist in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving till the Bridegroom comes again. Live in hope. Live Lent well. Live Lent with Jesus in Scripture and the Diary. This Lent, find Hope By Chris Sparks To order Jesus Our Hope: Daily Lenten Meditations from Ash Wednesday through Divine Mercy Sunday, 2025 (Product code B65-LD25), visit ShopMercy.org or call 1-800-462-7426. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). In this special Holy Year, the Jubilee of Hope, Lent becomes a season anew for listening to Divine Revelation, setting aside fear, despair, and presumption, and taking up instead true Christian hope. Our 2025 Lenten devotional, Jesus, Our Hope, is designed to help you do just that — to listen attentively to the Word of God and so be transformed (see Heb 4:12). Marian Helper • Spring 2025 • Marian.org 29
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