a spirit of counsel and of strength - December 5, 2010

Allow yourself to cherish the Sabbath and attending Mass on the Sabbath. Allow this to be a day of charity, humility, and obedience.

Remember the half forgotten prayers of childhood, create some prayers with echoes from yesterday.

Within each prayer rests a portion of your youth, a dollop of all that which is good, kind, and holy within you

And so remember the comfort that prayer does offer

Each time you do acknowledge what you have done

Each momentary strength, momentary weakness

Each prayer does unlock childish memories of faith,

And of Easter, and of the greatest sacrifice you ever heard,

And of a candle-lighted Lent of abstinence and silence

Now, vivid, cinematic, asking me to discern.

Presenting faces of hope, faces of faith, faces of love; faces serving, faces following

Tragedy is the handmaid to all human beings

And yet, those who believe with their entire being

Will surely find salvation and eternal life with God.

I am thinking of a child's prayer now

Said proudly, happily before their father at mealtime.

This Season

During this season of Lent our conversion can never be to far from our minds. Our sins are in our minds. We ask God for pity, mercy. This is the season of the little critics reminding us of original sin, reminding us that we are made of dust, reminding us of our weaknesses. The little critics reside somewhere within us and encourage us to examine our conscience.

Lent asks us to take a moment and examine our lives, to examine our reality. We live in an era of computer generated images. It is often difficult separating truth from fiction. This liturgical season helps us learn how to express our faith and love in God, to encourage faith and love in God to others, to encounter God.

Distractions and diversions attack us all the type. We must learn how to avoid them. This season provides a way for us to learn about goodness.

We must remember Christ in the desert; remember that our lives contain tests, moral, ethical, spiritual.

As Christians, our conversion teaches us the necessity and relevance of having God in our lives, guiding us, teaching us to do good. Our conversion teaches us to always have reverence for God. This reverence will help us move closer to God.

You do learn how to love by experiencing your failure in love. You do learn how to pray by being silent, by listening, by finally saying “Father,” the emotion in your heart shall guide you to God.

Secular forces encourage us to approach each day feeling a little vague, tentative, inconclusive. Uncertainty waits for us in the secular world. Beauty and serenity can be created with all types of algorithms and generated by super computers. Our senses might be seduced by the superficial appearances.

This season asks us to look beneath superficial, to uncover the truth.

I have enjoyed the homilies that I have heard during this season. In each there has been something which has made me question myself, my status quo.

My life does contain some failures, but also moments of fine humility, charity, and hope. My conversion is leading me in the right direction. I am working to follow. First I want to learn humility and then live it daily from the moment when I wake up till I go to sleep. For once I learn humility then that practice will help me with charity and obedience.

Each day I do examine my moral and physical state; I acknowledge that it is impossible to conquer sin but I can learn how to avoid it.

True life begins with love, begins with prayer; when our hopes and prayers are for the well-being and peace of everyone, unconditionally, freely then we are following in the footsteps of Christ.

Above all I want my life to reflect and inspire a love in Jesus Christ that will never perish.

I frequently think about God, helping others. I am developing a spiritual point of view which is in contrast to my intellectual point of view. The atmosphere of Lent creates compassion within me, moving and changing my thoughts and actions. My confidence in God grows when I pray, when I am quiet in front of the Blessed Sacrament, when I hear the Eucharist prayers.

Lent inspires a perpetually recurring hope for love, for goodness in myself, in others.

Penance

Lent allows each Christian to reflect upon their lives and all of the secular influences and then make decisions on how to be more Christ-like. Lent is a time of penance; reconciliation is a prominent component of Lent; each Christian asks God for forgiveness for their individual sins; and hopefully each Christian will be able to forgive others.

Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. These forty days allow time for purification of each Christian soul that obeys the Lord’s commandments. We simply have to believe and allow ourselves to be obedient, humble servants of the Lord.

How we approach each Lenten season can effect how much good we can take from each Lenten season.

Every day of our lives we sin; every day of our lives we face temptation; every day of our lives we move away from God. Each sin can become an obstacles to our relationship with God.

When we take time to consider our choices and the consequences of our actions, we are able to analyze and examine our behavior. If we allow ourselves to be silent, to be contemplative repentance will present itself if our hearts truly love God and want to be faithful to him.

The secular world inundates us with a dissociation of both responsibility and sensibility. Our society promotes the idea that purchasing some product will instantly make us feel better. Our society downplays religion and challenges the authority of God. In a consumerist society all sin is innocuous, can be washed away, swept away with a pill, a broom, or earphones. Christians know that sin does not depart so easily and the ramifications and the consequences of sin can damage our relationships with our family, our friends and with God. We must acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness.

As Christians we must remember that each of our individual acts has an impact on our Christian community. Our sins are not simply isolated to ourselves. Our sins are communal, shared with all members of the community, with everyone we encounter. Lent is a time of communal penance.

Each prayer, each fast, each almsgiving is a chance for each of us to move closer to God.

Lent is a somber season which can be filled with joy and hope if our hearts remember why repentance is necessary, if our hearts are ready and willing to be purified by the grace of God, if our hearts desire to be closer to God.

Lent, Lent, Lent

I must not forget this Lenten season. I must remember the necessity of repentance.

Lent is not just about giving something up. It also is about the changes which are made to our lives, the changes which help us pray more, the changes which help us move closer to God. Repentance, true repentance is both the regret and remorse we feel about our sins and real attempt to get sin out of our lives. In away repentance is about the departure of sin. The conflict between good and evil will remain in our lives. Sin patiently does wait to tempt us. But, sin can be defeated when we believe in God, put our trust and faith in God. As Christians our duty is to serve God; he asks us to be humble, obedient, charitable; as we grow in our faith our ability to love each other should also grow. Being Christian means that the struggle will continue. The more goodness we have in our lives, the more we are able to be just in accordance with Christ’s teachings the more we will be tempted. But, remember that we always have hope and God for protection.

Nothing is hopeless when we remember to pray, and, above all, nothing can change God’s love for each one of us. We must remember that God simply asks us to believe in him, to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Our lives should always reflect this love in all our interactions.

Lent is about penance. Penance is not to be viewed as a bad thing. Penance can be good. When our minds and our hearts are open good lessons about life and love can be learned through penance. Our lives with God can be greatly improved by the spirit in which we approach our penance and our desire for change and growth in our relationship with the Lord.

Lent is a time to remember and pray for everyone who loves you, for everyone who does not love you, for everyone you have forgotten. Lent is a time for unconditional prayer. Prayer leads us to God. We might experience a little upheaval but hopefully our former life will end, will die. Hopefully we will find the courage to adapt our lives as Christians to an existence of humility, charity, obedience; hopefully we will obtain the grace to be different than we previously were. Our love, faith, and trust in God can provide us with strength.

As Christians goodness and holiness are not achieved without struggle.

Be very careful and prayerful in your entire life, learn how to avoid the temptations which will endanger your Christian life, avoid pride and envy; strive to keep a pure and clean mind and a clear conscience. God does not exist in a gray area.

Live with hope; prosper with love.

Forty Days, Forty Opportunities

Lent offers each Christian the opportunity to improve our communion with God. Each Christian must pray, examine his/her conscience, test our faith, our resolve to follow in Christ’s footsteps and create lives based upon humility, charity, obedience. Lent is a time for each Christian to remember Christ in the desert and to test ourselves. Doing the simple things we say that we are going to do during this time is a test. Will we be able to fulfill our penance.

Penance is not about giving up, penance is for moving forward, learning something about yourself, your relationship with God, learning how to strengthen and improve that relationship.

The forty days of Lent provides each Christian with a glimpse of God beautiful loving design for our lives if we allow ourselves to trust in his magnificent, omnipotent love.

Penance allows us to draw direct parallels with Christ’s life; Christ did not take the easy path; Christ made all types of sacrifices; Christ suffered. As Christians penance reminds us that goodness requires effort and is difficult to achieve; as Christians we must be prepared to offer sacrifices and to suffer. As Christians we must always remember all the things that Christ did to save us, all the things that Christ did to show us how to be like him.

The gift of salvation waits for those who are able to demonstrate their free will to live like Jesus, to follow in his footsteps. Lent is a journey; penance is the map guiding us through life’s mendacity, mediocrity, morbidity, temptations. Lent is not a time for solitude; each Christian must remember to invite and to include Jesus in their Lenten journey.

Lent offers each Christian the choice of following Christ on the road of humility. Lent offers each Christian a moment to examine each action, to make the right choice, to be victorious over sin with Christ.

The itinerary of the Lenten journey was hopefully decided before the penitential sign of the ashes was placed on a forehead. Lent is a period of hope and good will. For penance to be successful, some effort and prayer must be connected to it. It is not enough to simply give up chocolate or coffee for Lent without adding something, some moment of prayer or reflection, some way to move closer to God.

Ash Wednesday reminds each Christian that we are made of earth and someday we will return to earth. Lent reminds us that we are created in the image of God and that if we are humble, obedient servants we will live in heaven with God.

We must remember that God loves us. We must teach ourselves to recognize and respond to God’s call. We must understand free will means choosing to obey God.

Secular life downplays the beauty of the mystical and spiritual life for the clamorous diseases leading people away from God, into all types of sinful, bad behavior. The secular world pollutes and infects each of our lives with disturbing, imprudent, impious images and ideas attacking basic decency and morality. Human beings should live in harmony with each other and the world; secular interests encourage lust, envy, gluttony, pride.

Lent offers a time and a manner to turn away from the secular world, a time and a manner to turn toward God.

Lent offers us a time to reflect upon our own unfair behavior and hopefully will provide us with the desire and ability to permanently make changes which will make us better people, better Christians. Lent reminds us of the necessity of social justice and then encourages us to add alms giving, prayer, and fasting to our lives. These should not be directed toward other men, but directed toward God’s gaze.

As we journey through each day of Lent remember human dignity. Remember that we all need to pray for and have hope in social justice. Life’s disappointments and tragedies should direct us toward God. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. Each of us is responsible for both our personal and community conversion. Our lives must not only reflect the teachings of Christ, our lives must project the teachings of Christ and his love for each of us.

Ash Wednesday symbolizes our humanity and the continuing struggles of our daily experiences, of our daily conversion.