A FRESH START

      At this stage in our Lenten journey we see invitations to parish Lenten Penance Services where the Sacrament of Reconciliation is celebrated.  It is a part of the penitential nature of the season.

The first reading for this Tuesday in Lent is from chapter 65 of the prophet Isaiah.  We read: "Thus says the Lord: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.  The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.  Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people."

    What powerful and affirming words ... what a reassurance to the heart that is lost in sin or the struggle to follow the Lord's way.

    The Sacrament of Reconciliation is about forgiveness of sins.  Recognizing our failures and desiring to be be set free and to begin anew, we come with a sincere heart and an open mind to the truth that the Lord is creating a new thing, opening for us the possibility to begin again, to make a fresh start, to be reconciled.

    A very important part of that gift is found in the words: "The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind."

    How hard it is for us to not remember - the hurts that we have experienced, the hurts and failures that we have inflicted upon others, the burden of our guilt and pain.  But God's word is clear.  Come to him with a truly repentant heart, trust in his mercy and love, and start fresh to walk in the way of the Lord.

    If you are contemplating taking part in a Lenten Penance Service this year, remember God's assurance that his grace will bring about a recreation in you.  Make a fresh start and be blessed.

VIA DOLOROSA - 7 & 8

      We continue with our journey with Jesus to the hill of Calvary with the next two Stations of the Cross.

The Seventh Station

JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME

Jesus fell once.  It was from weakness and pain but it was for something or someone.

    He fell the first time for those who set the murderous wheels of his passion and death in motion, Pilate and his emperor, the chief priests and religious leaders calling for his death, those blinded by power and their weakness.  He showed them the power of weakness when that power and weakness are called love.

    This second time he fell it was for those who followed and watched, sometimes at a distance as passive bystanders and sometimes as the crowd jeered his and called for his death.  They were caught in spiritual paralysis and guilt and blindness to suffering and death.  He fell that they might run to their merciful God.  

    He fell a second time and he got up again and stumbled forward to his death and our freedom.

The Eighth Station

JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

In Luke 23:28 Jesus says to these women along his path "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."

    Jesus predicts a harsh future that his people will have because of their rejection of God's works of mercy and grace.  Jerusalem will ultimately fall to the Romans, the temple again destroyed and God's people once again dispersed.  When sorrows and pain touch our lives we must remember that redemption and joy are our destiny, when we weep for the crucified one and rejoice in the risen Lord. 

ACT OF CONSECRATION - Part 2

      We continue with "The Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary" of Pope Francis given at Saint Peter Basilica on March 25, 2022.

"Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in         the tempest of war.

Ark of the Covenant, inspire projects and paths     of reconciliation.

Queen of Heaven, restore God's peace to the            world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and     teach us forgiveness.

Free us from war, protect our world from the         menace of nuclear weapons.

Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need         to pray and to love.

Queen of the Human Family, show people the         path of fraternity.

Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

    O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.  May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.  Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.  May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.   May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land.  May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

    Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: 'Behold your son' (Jn 19:26).  In this way he entrusted each of us to you.  To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: 'Behold, your Mother (v.27).  Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.  At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ.  The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

    Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity,  especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The "Fiat" that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

    Through your intercession, may God's mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the "Fiat", on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our "living fountain of hope", water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen. 

ACT OF CONSECRATION

     After the apparitions at Fatima the Church offered prayers of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for Russia, what I remember were for the "conversion" of Russia.  A terrible atheistic communism was spreading and we offered prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary for assistance.  During Pope John Paul II's pontificate he dedicated the entire world to the protection of Mary.  In light of the present unrest between Ukraine and Russia, Pope Francis is asking the Church once again to make an Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for her intercession.  He will do so at Saint Peter on the Solemnity of the Annunciation on March 25th of this year, 2022.  The Act of Consecration is long - two pages.  I would like to share it with you - but will do so in a few segments which you may piece together in your prayer.

    "O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.  As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you.  Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence!  You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

    Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.  We have forgotten the lessen learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.  We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations.  We have betrayed peoples' dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.  We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.  We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.  We stopped being our neighbor's keepers and stewards of our common home.  We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.  We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.  Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, O Lord!

    Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.  He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.  By God's gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

    Now we turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.  We are your beloved children.  In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.  At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.  Say to us once more: "Am I not here, I who am your Mother?"  You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.  In you we place our trust.  We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

    That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs.  To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: "They have no wine" (Jn 2:3).  Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded.  we have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace.  we opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness.  How greatly we need your maternal help!"

    [to be continued] 

BEING CULTIVATED

      Our gospel for this Sunday of Lent tells the story of the fig tree found in chapter 13 of Luke. [see Luke 13:1-9]

    Here we see a glimpse of the nature of God.  We hear: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it found none."

    We know that our God has called us by name, gifted us with an abundance of his grace, and made clear that he has expectations for us.  Those expectations involve more than simply "growing where you are planted".  There is the expectation that the grace given will bear fruit and provide praise and glory for the name of God.

    Like the man in the story today, there is sometimes a disappointment that even after the years of our existence we might not be bearing fruit,  Our Lenten journey allows us to examine our lives and their productivity.

    The man in the story says to the gardener: "For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.  So cut it down.  Why should it exhaust the soil?"  But the gardener intervened and begged to let him spend the next year cultivating the ground around the tree and fertilize it.  Then if it still does not bear fruit it will be cut down.

    Our God is a God of expectations.  He does not simply gift us and then leave us on our own, giving us the leeway to grow or not to grow.  He expects growth, he expects progress in living out his gifts, he awaits the proof of our faithfulness and the fruit of our lives lived well.

    Jesus is the gardener in this parable.  He appeals to the Father to give us a second chance - and then he works with us to bring out the best within us.

    Our God is a God of expectations - expectations that are tempered by patience which flows from his love.  In our weakness there are moments when the fruit that we bear is not evident and in those moments he has the right to "cut us down".  However the nature of God will not allow him to do so easily ... rather he pledges to work with us, to cultivate us, to fertilize us [just think of the things that we sometimes have to deal with] and to bring out the best in us.

    Our God is a God of patient love, and while we may find ourselves condemned by refusing his gardening skills, we are also assured that if we are willing to allow him, he will do everything to bring his life to us.  Thank his for his patient love. 

SAINT JOSEPH

      Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is one of two feasts honoring Joseph (the other, May 1st - Saint Joseph the Worker).  As Patron of the Universal Church, Joseph holds a special place of honor and respect in our hearts.  Here is what Saint Bernadine of Siena had to say of Joseph.  It comes from the Office of Readings for the feast.

    "What then is Joseph's position in the whole Church of Christ?  Is he not a man chosen and set apart?  Through him and, yes, under him, Christ was fittingly and honorably introduced into the world.  Holy Church in its entirety is indebted to the Virgin Mother because through her it was judged worthy to receive Christ.  But after her we undoubtedly owe special gratitude and reverence to Saint Joseph.

    In him the Old Testament finds its fitting close.  He brought the noble line of patriarchs and prophets to its promised fulfillment.  What the divine goodness had offered as a promise to them, he held in his arms."

    We pray: "Remember us, Saint Joseph, and plead for us to your foster-child.  Ask your most holy bride, the Virgin Mary, to look kindly upon us, since she is the mother of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns eternally,  Amen"

VIA DOLOROSA - 5 & 6

     We continue our journey to the hill of Calvary by looking at the 5th and 6th Station of the Cross.

STATION 5 - THE CROSS IS LAID ON SIMON OF CYRENE

    Simon of Cyrene is pressed into service to help carry the Cross for Jesus, but the Cross belongs to Jesus to bear.  We can look at Simon as our forefather in the faith.  We learn to love the Cross by embracing it, kissing it like we do on Good Friday.  The Cross that we reluctantly yet willing accept is the Cross found in the difficulties of the world, or our unfulfilled longings and yearnings and in every cry of pain and agony.

    We come to love the Cross because of Christ and the love in which he bore the original.  Simon helped Jesus bear his Cross - through the helping hands of our neighbors and through God's grace, we are not left alone to bear our crosses.  Like Simon we stand with those in need and like Simon our friends stand with us in the carrying of our burdens, our crosses.

STATION 6 - VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

    The person of Veronica is not found in Scripture, but the action of one who responds to agony and pain, to the need for an act of kindness is not only found in the Scriptures but demanded in the Gospels.  Thus the Church gives us this moment of compassion.

    The face of Jesus is ultimately inseparable from the image of his crown of thorns and the injury inflicted by the blows of his tormentors.  The face of suffering revealed to Veronica (revealed to us) will soon be the face of glory.  His face will shine upon us and we will know peace as we see him face to face.  

    May we be a Veronica to those most in need and may Gospel love be brought to the world through us.

SAINT PATRICK

      The following was given me at lunch today by one of our priests, Father Jeremiah O'Shea.  It was on a shamrock bookmark.

St. Patrick

Bishop of Armagh (died 461), was a Roman citizen who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland.  After escaping to his native Britain, Patrick heard a voice telling him to return to Ireland to serve the people he had met there.  It is said that St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach about the Trinity.  It's three-in-one leaves symbolize Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one Supreme Being.  The Irish people knew intuitively that God is present in all of creation, and St. Patrick showed them that, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, God was beyond all of creation as well.

"I bind unto myself the name, 

The strong name of the Trinity by invocation of             the same.  

The Three in One and One in Three, 

Of whom all nature has creation.  

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word, 

Praise to the Lord of my salvation;  

Salvation is of Christ the Lord!"

            From St. Patrick's Breastplate

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK DAY!

THE MOUNTAINTOP - A DIFFERENT VIEW

         I recorded the voice over this afternoon for the broadcast on WAOB of Pope Francis' homily for last Sunday.  The gospel story was "the transfiguration" and here were a few of his thoughts that I found helpful.

    "Jesus 'went up the mountain'.  Jesus' path is one of ascent, not descent.  The light of the transfiguration is not seen on the plain, but only after a strenuous ascent.  In following Jesus, we too need to leave the plains of mediocrity and the foothills of convenience; we need to abandon our reassuring routines and set out on an exodus.  

    Brothers and sisters, only the ascent of the cross leads to the goal of glory.  This is the way: from the cross to glory.  The worldly temptation is to seek glory by surpassing the cross.  We would prefer paths that are familiar, direct and smooth, but to encounter the light of Jesus we must continually leave ourselves behind and follow him upwards."

TRANSFIGURATION THOUGHTS

      The gospel reading for the 2nd Sunday of Lent is from Luke 9:28-36.

    Jesus had called his disciples ... he taught with great wisdom and with a message that moved hearts ... he touched the lives of those on the peripheries, those hurting in body and soul ... he healed the sick ... he raised the dead to life.   He sparked among his people a hope that their long exile, their time of waiting for the Lord's coming, was at an end.   Things were hopeful ... things were getting better ... they could see prophecies being fulfilled.

    But Jesus knew what was coming - for him and for them.   And he sought to prepare them.

    Jesus took Peter, John and James, his closest friends and companions, to the mountaintop.   They followed him with an expectation that they would spend time in prayer before God.   Another intimate moment.

    But Jesus knew the tremendous challenge awaiting them with his rejection, arrest and crucifixion.   This would be a time of terrible darkness for them, unless they had something unexpected and marvelous to hold on to.

    So on that mountaintop, a place where God is often found, they found God in the most unlikely place - in their friend and teacher, Jesus.

    "His face changed in appearance and his clothes became dazzling white."  He was revealed by a voice from heaven: "This is my chosen Son, listen to him."   With this glimpse of Jesus in his glory, they were overwhelmed.

    Peter, John and James were never the same ... those they told, those that heard their witness were strengthened for the dark days ahead.   Those who had doubts found courage to believe.   And even though the scriptures say that they remained silent and told no one what they saw, this did not last long.   You cannot keep the Word of God under wraps.

    But something else happened.   In that encounter, with the transfigured Jesus seen with Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the prophets), all creation was brought to perfection.

    The knowledge that God in all his glory as seen in Jesus on that mountaintop is the God that draws us to himself and desires to share himself intimately with us.   We share his glory, as he shares our humanity.   This does not make us gods ... but it allows us to be God-like.

    Our lives lived in love in the pattern of our Lord is the gift that we affirm today on this Sunday of Lent and pledge to live well.

VIA DOLOROSA - 3&4

      Continuing our journey on this Way of the Cross, we will look on this second Friday of Lent on Stations 3 & 4.

STATION 3 - JESUS FALL THE FIRST TIME    

    Our third station is to reflect that in his journey to Calvary Jesus fell three times.  This moment of reflection is on the first of those falls.  Jesus, remember, had fasted and prayed, he had been arrested and scourged, handled cruelly and made to carry the instrument of his death, the cross.  Whether it was the traditional image of the cross or simply the crossbeam as some say, it was a tremendous burden.  And he stumbled and fell to the ground.

    We often stumble and fall even when the burdens we carry are less severe and we are in better shape.  The question is: "What do we do when we fall?"  Do we lie there or do we get up and continue our journey?  Do we keep going even when it is tough?

    Jesus was weighed down not only with the wood of the cross, but with the rejection of his people, with the accusations of his religious leaders, with the condemnation of Pilate and the anger of the crowd, with the hatred that was the response to his love.

STATION 4 - JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

    Mary was there.  She was comforted by John and Mary and her friends.  She was a mother who was in true anguish and pain.  We call Mary the sorrowful mother, for as Simeon had predicted, a sword of sorrow pierced her heart.

    Pause and imagine what she was going through.  Then pause and remember that as great as her sorrows were that day, she did not despair.  She saw her son broken, but she saw His Son offered as a sacrifice for everyone.  She would see him "lifted up" and she would see him raised from death.

    Mary's sorrows (and joys) continue as she watches us continue to struggle to be free and to find in her son our true freedom.  Mary, we love you!  Pray for us!

POWER OF THE WORD

      The first reading for Wednesday of the first week of Lent comes from chapter 3 of the Book of Jonah.  We find Jonah finally responding to the word of God to go to the city of Nineveh and bring God's word to that sinful city.  After only one day of calling the Ninevites to repentance and to action, they responded.  A truly miraculous encounter with the power of God's word.

    With one week of Lent under our belts, we too are presented with the challenge to see God's word to us, in Scripture and in prayer, as more than "just words".

    I really like the words of Pope Francis, they speak to my heart.  Here is what he has said about the Word of God.

    The word of God changes us ... It penetrates our soul like a sword.  If, on the one hand it consoles us by showing us the face of God, on the other, it challenges and disturbs us, reminding us of our inconsistencies.  It shakes us up.  It does not bring us peace at the price of accepting a world rent by injustice and hunger, where the price is always paid by the weakest.  God's word challenges the self-justification that makes us blame everything that goes wrong on other persons and situations.  The word of God invites us to come out into the open, not to hide behind the complexity of problems, behind the excuse that "nothing can be done about it" or "it's somebody else's problem", or "what can I do?"   The word of God urges us to act, to combine worship of God and care for man.  

    The Word wishes to take flesh today, in the times in which we are living, not in some ideal future.

    Are we a Church that is docile to the word?  A Church inclined to listen to others, engaged in reaching out to raise up our brothers and sisters from all that oppress them, to undo the knots of fear, to liberate those most vulnerable from the prisons of poverty ... from the sadness that stifles life?

    We might add, from the terrors of fear and war.  The news these past two weeks has been filled with images and news of Ukraine's terrible Lent of occupation.  I've heard many people, even non religious people, say that they are "praying for the people of Ukraine".  The Word of God calls for prayer ... but also for action.  Jonah did not expect anything to happen in Nineveh, but was he surprised!  May we find ourselves surprised when the power of the Lord's word, in prayer and in active participation in the suffering of our sisters and brothers, changes hearts and minds and brings peace.

GOD'S LESSONS

      The Office of Readings from the Divine Office, the liturgical prayer life of the Church and her priests often contain great little nuggets for reflection.  The second reading for this Tuesday of the First Week of Lent is from a treatise on the Lord's Prayer by Saint Cyprian.  Cyprian was an early bishop and martyr who lived in Carthage in North Africa and died in 258.  Here is his opening paragraph.

    "Dear brothers, the commands of the gospel are nothing else than God's lessons, the foundations upon which to build up hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart.  They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure.   As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the kingdom of heaven."

    The gospel message, the witness by Jesus of the Father's love for us, is the lesson that we should strive to understand better and live more fully this Lenten season.  Promise yourself this blessing.

BE HOLY

      The reading at Mass today is from chapter 19 of Leviticus.  It begins: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them: BE HOLY, FOR I, THE LORD, YOUR GOD, AM HOLY.'"

    Then he goes on to lay out a blueprint for holiness that is given in the commandments of the Law.  It is filled with many "You shall not" commands and a few "You shall" directives.  It does not encompass everything that will be found in life, but it does provide a path.

    This first reading for today's liturgy ends with a call to love: love of God and love of our neighbor as ourselves.  And why do this?  Because, the Lord tells us - "I am the Lord".

    To become holy is to acknowledge God as the source of our life and of his life within us.  The God of all holiness lives within us through his Holy Spirit, given to us in Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, and renewed daily in his invitation to walk with him in love.

    Is the journey an easy one?  As you know from experience, the answer is no.  However, we are called to manifest his holiness in the lives we live, and the grace to do so is found in his gift of his Spirit.

    Our Lent allows us to find the best ways to respond to his call to holiness, and to step forward with courage.

"LET MY PEOPLE GO!"

      I ran out of time yesterday and could not get a post in.  This one is a part of a reflection that I gave last evening on WAOB radio, as part of the "lectio divina" on chapter 5 of Exodus from the Office of Readings.

    Our journey through Lent begins.  This journey in the upcoming weeks is a capsule image of the journey that we are on from the bondage of sin to the freedom of grace lived in closeness to God.  We might say that the battle cry of this journey is "Let my people go!", the words of Moses to Pharaoh.

    The people of Israel were bound to a power that enslaved them.  And Pharaoh was the leader.  Chapter 5 has Moses and Aaron bringing the Lord's word to this oppressor: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast for me in the wilderness."  And Pharaoh says NO!

    The word that the Lord spoke to Pharaoh he speaks today to all the forces and powers that hold us in bondage.  He desires that we be "set free" to follow him.

    But like Pharaoh, the forces that hold us bound react in a way that makes it more challenging, more difficult to journey toward our eternal reward.

    This was the case in Egypt, where, as we hear in chapter 5 of Exodus, things got much more difficult.  Pharaoh demanded more and gave them less to work with.  Things got worse before getting better.  Instead of freedom in sight they saw despair.

    All God desired was that his people could go and worship.  All God desires is that we find the freedom to worship him, to come to know him, and to place ourselves at his service.  Desiring freedom we find ourselves still bound by sin.  Ask him for the grace of freedom this Lent.

VIA DOLOROSA - 1&2

 I hope to reflect on the Friday's of Lent on the Way of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa.  Each week I will reflect upon two of the "stations".  Years ago I did something similar during a series of Uniontown area Lenten Prayer breakfasts.

    I.  JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

    Condemnations are as old as humanity itself. Examples are beyond our comprehension.  How easy it is to stand in condemnation of another, or to be judged by another.  How difficult to be merciful and to show compassion and understanding.

    Years ago I saw the legal system at work in a case that affected someone I knew, and someone that I spoke up for as a character witness.  He is a good man who found himself making a bad decision in a difficult situation.  The jury found him guilty, and he served a sentence that supposedly rehabilitated a man that did not need rehabilitation.  I could not serve on a jury of my peers because my sense of justice is guided not by punishment and "a pound of flesh" but on understanding and mercy.

    Jesus, although innocent, was accused, brought before the civil authorities who acted as they were forced to by the law and the circumstances of the times, and condemned - to death.  Justice?  NO!  But from this injustice for Jesus came a mercy for us.  Let us never be "quick to condemn".

    II.    JESUS RECEIVES HIS CROSS

    Accepting the crosses that come in our lives is never easy.  I, for one, never liked the challenge of a cross.  I looked for the easy way out, the blessing.  However, crosses, great and small, are a part of life, and they build our character and strengthen our resolve to embrace life.

    The Cross Jesus received that day was a sentence of destruction.  He transformed that ignoble image into a sign that we today acclaim as victorious.  When we accept our crosses and bring the strength of God's love and grace to those crosses, they can be transformed into that which "lifts us up" to the throne of the Father.   Hard, and strange as it may sound, accept your crosses as a blessing, and do not see them as a curse.  If you can, if you do, you will be strong and free. 

 

CHOOSE LIFE

      Our first reading for this second day of Lent is from chapter 30 of Deuteronomy.  We hear Moses addressing the people that he has led from the bondage of Egypt to the threshold of the Promised Land.  Assembling the whole community he says: "Today I set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy."

    Then he tells then what will happen if they do not accept, obey and follow the path set before them - death and darkness.

    He boils it down to this: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life!"

    The "black and white" of this decision, the "light or darkness" of our actions has already been made for most of us.  We have chosen the Lord, and his way, and his blessings.  

    We continue to face decisions that are much harder to make, for they involve the "gray" areas of life, those decisions that we allow to be tempered by the temptation of a lessened resolve.  

    Lent is the moment, as we heard in Joel yesterday, to: "Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.  Rend your hearts ... and return to the Lord, your God."

    In these early days of Lent let us turn to the Lord and ask him to show his love in abounding compassion and mercy.  Assure him that you "Choose Life". 

FASTING

      There are two days within the Roman Catholic calendar that are designated as Days of Fasting - today, the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday ... and Good Friday during the Triduum.  Those two days, plus every Friday during Lent, are also Days of Abstinence (meatless days).

    There are many levels of fasting that have surfaced over the centuries, and what we call Fasting in today's Church is hardly a hardship or sacrifice.  Officially, to Fast means to eat only one full meal during the day, and two smaller meals.  [That is more than I normally sit down to eat each day]  Of course there are reasons why this Fast cannot be followed, health being a primary one.

    So why are we encouraged to Fast?  How can Fasting be a sacrifice that betters our lives?  Pope Francis recently spoke of what we can "Fast From" this Lent that will make a difference.  

Here is what he said:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures; be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness; fill hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words; be silent and listen.

PREPARING TO BEGIN

      This evening our small community of retired priests and those in our house gathered to celebrate Mardi Gras.  Unlike New Orleans and other "hot spots" around the world, we did not give ourselves over to "reckless abandon", but instead gathered to pray, enjoy a social time and then a great dinner prepared by Nick, the chef who heads our kitchen staff.  All of this leads to the entrance in the great season of grace that we know as Lent - a drawing closer to the Lord as we reflect on and repent of our sinfulness and march toward a joyous celebration of the life that Easter brings.

    We prayed Mid-Day Prayer in chapel.  The following reflection was printed on the back cover.  I am not sure of its origin, but I found the thoughts appropriate.  So, if you are reading this and wrote it - thank you!

    Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for it is from your goodness that we have this day to celebrate on the threshold of the Season of Lent.

    Tomorrow we will fast and abstain from meat.  Today we feast.  We thank you for the abundance of gifts you shower upon us.  We thank you especially for one another.  As we give you thanks, we are mindful of those who have so much less than we do.  As we share these wonderful gifts together, we commit ourselves to greater generosity toward those who need our support.

    Prepare us for tomorrow.  Tasting the fullness of what we have today, let us experience some hunger tomorrow.  May our fasting make us more alert and may it heighten our consciousness so that we might be ready to hear your Word and respond to your call.

    As our feasting fills us with gratitude so may our fasting and abstinence hollow out in us a place for deeper desires and an attentiveness to hear the cry of the poor.  May our self-denial turn our hearts to you and give us a new freedom for generous service to others.

    We ask you these graces with our hearts full of delight and stirring with readiness for the journey ahead.  We ask them with confidence in the name of Jesus the Lord.

HAPPY LENT!