LENT
Spring is that time of the year when all nature seems to come back to life. It is nature’s time of the year to shout: all things will be new. It is a time of hope. The beautiful winter is over. The snow and cold have done their marvelous work of preparing for the newness of spring. Spring is that time of the year when the work of winter comes to fruition.
Lent is the springtime of our lives with God. The seed of the word of God was planted in our hearts. It has been there waiting to come forth ...Lent is the time when we grasp this word and let it see the sunlight of life. The winter cycle must be mixed with spring. Lent is the time to let God sow and reap. It is the time to listen .
Lent is the time to grow in our relationship with God. In many parts of the world, there are people who are preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil. The Sundays of Lent will find them standing before the communities into which they will be Baptized and promising to live the “way.”
This is the meaning of Lent: to let the seed of new life planted within us by God blossom in prayer, fasting and good works. But as the reading from the prophet Joel on Ash Wednesday reminds us it is not only for us as individuals but as a community. ”Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly ” we walk this time of newness together or we do not walk it at all. The sense then is of the entire Church looking to God and asking for the grace to re-commit to grow and to remember the great things He has done for us.
Lent is indeed a time of penance. But not a sad penance...rather it is the joyful penance of trying to turn to God in a deeper way...can there be anything sad about this except perhaps the remembrance of the times we turned to ourselves rather than to Him?
Lent is a time of preparation. It is the time when we look forward to the celebration of the Paschal Feast...but it is also the time when we prepare in a special way to celebrate the Easter mysteries every day. We can not celebrate Easter in April if we do not celebrate it today.
Lent is a time to remember. We remember who we are and whom God has made us. In remembering we go beyond this world into the world of God
.
ASH WEDNESDAY (Joel 2,12-18; 2Cor.5,20-6,2; Matt.6,1-6,16-18) The first day of Lent. So many resolutions, looking forward...to pray more fervently, to fast, to be charitable...all are important. The words of Joel ring out: “order a fast, ring out a solemn assembly.” They are a reminder that we are doing Lent not by ourselves but with the community. The call to conversion is not only individual but also communal. In our own weak and often times stumbling ways we travel these days trying to remember that we are doing it not only for ourselves but also for the Church.
In Lent we enter into a profound mystery: we are united to one another in such a way that the prayers, fasting, good works resound on others. Individual holiness, closeness to God mean that to that extent the Church on earth is more of what it should be. One of the most beautiful aspects of Lent is that it invites us to look at our relationship with God not from some selfish vantage point, but rather from the viewpoint of myself affecting the lives of others by the good, no matter how imperfect it may be, I do with the grace of God.
Question
1: What are your thoughts on your actions effcting the entire Church?
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY (Dt.30,15-20;Lk.9,22-25) The promise of life beats within today’s Word. “Today I set before you life and prosperity ,”You will live and increase,” “ He will be raised up on the last day”...All based on obedience to God and identification with the Lord. What does it mean to “live?”.
To be able to grow. That which cannot grow is not really alive.
To be free from fear. To be unreasonably afraid prevents the spirit from reaching out to the outer bounds of its possibilities.
To be able take the disappointments and heartaches of life and not to be defeated by them.
To live is to dream. These are not the dreams of the morning mist which soon disappear, but the dreams which open the eyes to the wonders of what can be.
To live means to find within oneself that voice which says: keep on living because if you do someday you will live to the fullest.
Question:
1: What is the one thing you think you need to make you more alive?
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY (Is.58,1-9; Matt.9,14-150 To be open to what God wants to teach us. We can get satisfied with ourselves. It may even be something good, often times it is, which prevents God from breaking through, .to a new level. The prayers we say, the fasting we do, can push us into a corner. It is comfortable. It does not demand too much and at the same time I can look to God and say:” see what I am doing.” We build a wall in this corner, a wall built by “the good things we do” which prevents us from getting out or anyone else from getting in. The reaching up to heaven which is proclaimed from within this walled space only manages to place another stone on top and to make the wall higher.
All the Lenten practices are but the means to make ourselves available to the word which God wants to speak to us. They are to break down the walls and not to build them. They are meant to let the sunshine of God’s love come into our lives and not to further the darkness of an enclosed soul. It is the time to look to the end and not the means.
Question:
1: How are you going to make the word of God more active ?
world...we look for the clenched fist to do away with, and the yoke to take off the backs
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY ( Is.58,9b-14; Lk.5,27-32) ”Follow me” and “It is not those who are well who need a doctor” bounce off the pages...we follow Him by being the doctors in the of people...to look at the holy and proclaim its holiness...we look at the brokenness in the lives of people, in society.
To be a doctor means to be a sign of hope in a world of despair.
To be a doctor means to give to people that one gift which goes beyond all else :the knowledge that God loves them, that He loves the world.
To be a doctor means that we can look at the hungry and the homeless and say,” I will feed and give you a home because of who you are.”
Lent is that time when in following we become more and more convinced of what it is to serve.
Question: 1: How has Our Lord used you to be a doctor?
Spring is that time of the year when all nature seems to come back to life. It is nature’s time of the year to shout: all things will be new. It is a time of hope. The beautiful winter is over. The snow and cold have done their marvelous work of preparing for the newness of spring. Spring is that time of the year when the work of winter comes to fruition.
Lent is the springtime of our lives with God. The seed of the word of God was planted in our hearts. It has been there waiting to come forth ...Lent is the time when we grasp this word and let it see the sunlight of life. The winter cycle must be mixed with spring. Lent is the time to let God sow and reap. It is the time to listen .
Lent is the time to grow in our relationship with God. In many parts of the world, there are people who are preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil. The Sundays of Lent will find them standing before the communities into which they will be Baptized and promising to live the “way.”
This is the meaning of Lent: to let the seed of new life planted within us by God blossom in prayer, fasting and good works. But as the reading from the prophet Joel on Ash Wednesday reminds us it is not only for us as individuals but as a community. ”Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly ” we walk this time of newness together or we do not walk it at all. The sense then is of the entire Church looking to God and asking for the grace to re-commit to grow and to remember the great things He has done for us.
Lent is indeed a time of penance. But not a sad penance...rather it is the joyful penance of trying to turn to God in a deeper way...can there be anything sad about this except perhaps the remembrance of the times we turned to ourselves rather than to Him?
Lent is a time of preparation. It is the time when we look forward to the celebration of the Paschal Feast...but it is also the time when we prepare in a special way to celebrate the Easter mysteries every day. We can not celebrate Easter in April if we do not celebrate it today.
Lent is a time to remember. We remember who we are and whom God has made us. In remembering we go beyond this world into the world of God
.
ASH WEDNESDAY (Joel 2,12-18; 2Cor.5,20-6,2; Matt.6,1-6,16-18) The first day of Lent. So many resolutions, looking forward...to pray more fervently, to fast, to be charitable...all are important. The words of Joel ring out: “order a fast, ring out a solemn assembly.” They are a reminder that we are doing Lent not by ourselves but with the community. The call to conversion is not only individual but also communal. In our own weak and often times stumbling ways we travel these days trying to remember that we are doing it not only for ourselves but also for the Church.
In Lent we enter into a profound mystery: we are united to one another in such a way that the prayers, fasting, good works resound on others. Individual holiness, closeness to God mean that to that extent the Church on earth is more of what it should be. One of the most beautiful aspects of Lent is that it invites us to look at our relationship with God not from some selfish vantage point, but rather from the viewpoint of myself affecting the lives of others by the good, no matter how imperfect it may be, I do with the grace of God.
Question
1: What are your thoughts on your actions effcting the entire Church?
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY (Dt.30,15-20;Lk.9,22-25) The promise of life beats within today’s Word. “Today I set before you life and prosperity ,”You will live and increase,” “ He will be raised up on the last day”...All based on obedience to God and identification with the Lord. What does it mean to “live?”.
To be able to grow. That which cannot grow is not really alive.
To be free from fear. To be unreasonably afraid prevents the spirit from reaching out to the outer bounds of its possibilities.
To be able take the disappointments and heartaches of life and not to be defeated by them.
To live is to dream. These are not the dreams of the morning mist which soon disappear, but the dreams which open the eyes to the wonders of what can be.
To live means to find within oneself that voice which says: keep on living because if you do someday you will live to the fullest.
Question:
1: What is the one thing you think you need to make you more alive?
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY (Is.58,1-9; Matt.9,14-150 To be open to what God wants to teach us. We can get satisfied with ourselves. It may even be something good, often times it is, which prevents God from breaking through, .to a new level. The prayers we say, the fasting we do, can push us into a corner. It is comfortable. It does not demand too much and at the same time I can look to God and say:” see what I am doing.” We build a wall in this corner, a wall built by “the good things we do” which prevents us from getting out or anyone else from getting in. The reaching up to heaven which is proclaimed from within this walled space only manages to place another stone on top and to make the wall higher.
All the Lenten practices are but the means to make ourselves available to the word which God wants to speak to us. They are to break down the walls and not to build them. They are meant to let the sunshine of God’s love come into our lives and not to further the darkness of an enclosed soul. It is the time to look to the end and not the means.
Question:
1: How are you going to make the word of God more active ?
world...we look for the clenched fist to do away with, and the yoke to take off the backs
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY ( Is.58,9b-14; Lk.5,27-32) ”Follow me” and “It is not those who are well who need a doctor” bounce off the pages...we follow Him by being the doctors in the of people...to look at the holy and proclaim its holiness...we look at the brokenness in the lives of people, in society.
To be a doctor means to be a sign of hope in a world of despair.
To be a doctor means to give to people that one gift which goes beyond all else :the knowledge that God loves them, that He loves the world.
To be a doctor means that we can look at the hungry and the homeless and say,” I will feed and give you a home because of who you are.”
Lent is that time when in following we become more and more convinced of what it is to serve.
Question: 1: How has Our Lord used you to be a doctor?
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