The Secret of Friendship. Friday, April 11. Lent 2014.

“Do we love each other in Christ Jesus, for Christ Jesus, with Christ Jesus?”

The answers to these questions are Montfort’s friendship criterion.

For Montfort, good friends were hard to come by.

He found that quality Christian friendships were nearly absent.

Many of Montfort’s friends left him.

Deserted him.

Even his spiritual director.

Montfort labels these crosses as some of the hardest that he had to carry.

Despite these challenging crosses,

Montfort did not give up on his friendship with others,

nor his relationship with God.

His relationship with God was clearly of upmost importance,

but he valued good Christian friendships as well.

“Authentic Christian friendship, centered on Jesus, is a meeting place with God: ‘Of all human realities, nothing is more effective than friendship between friends of God to keep their gaze fixed ever more intently on God’.”

So true.

I am not the best when it comes to friends.

I’m not the biggest fan of people in general,

I’m by no means a wallflower,

and I like to challenge the norms of this world.

None of these ravishing qualities prove to be friend magnets.

But I can tell you,

of my closest friends,

there is one thing they all have in common,

we spend time together in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

I am not the master of friendship,

by no means,

but I do know that there is power found in the chapel.

Jesus is there.

When my friends and I spend time with Him,

our friendship is no longer about the two of us,

but rather,

it is about how we can serve Him through our friendship,

about how we can lead each other to Him,

and how we can lead others to Him.

If you like your friends,

take them and go hang out with Jesus together.

Good things will happen.

God things will happen.

After all,

it’s about God Alone.

This Lenten blog series is based upon St. Louis de Montfort's writings. Unless otherwise noted, all the phrases in quotation marks are taken from the book Jesus Living in Mary.