I hope that everyone's Lent is moving along prayerfully and peacefully. But if you find it's not going quite as you had hoped or planned, this third week of Lent is an excellent time for a reboot. The Lenten journey can get a little bumpy or even take us on a detour, but thank goodness our God is a God of infinite chances and each day is a new day to get up, dust ourselves off, and get moving again.
The 3 traditional practices or pillars of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Last week much of the note was about different ways to pray, but primarily the focus was on contemplation or sitting and just being wrapped in God's loving presence. There is another type of contemplation known as Ignatian Contemplation which is "using your imagination to see and interact with various scenes from Scripture." If you are a PODCAST fan you might enjoy, IMAGINE: A Guide to Jesuit Prayer. The series that you will find at this link is based on the year's Sunday Lenten Gospels:
FASTING
You can be sure that you will find more tips and ideas about prayer in our upcoming notes, but let's turn our attention for just a bit to the pillar of fasting. Did you decide to give something up this year? I did... on-line solitaire! Every time I sit down to play, I think it's just going to be a few minutes or a few games or just until I win, but inevitably it turns into an hour or more of time that I will never get back; time that I could have been spending in prayer or doing something kind for someone or just being present to Tim. It's great when our fasting turns our attention to God and others, but sometimes it's more about a self-improvement plan than it is about growing in relationship with Jesus and each other. Check out the following video about NOT GIVING UP ANYTHING FOR LENT... what????
A Lenten Litany of Fasting and Feasting
A different way to think about fasting
"Let us fast from judging and feast on the Christ that dwells in others.
Let us fast from anger and feast on patience.
Let us fast from resentment and feast on forgiveness.
Let us fast from discouragement and feast on hope.
Let us fast from lies and feast on God's truth.
Let us fast from wasting time and feast on the holiness of work.
Let us fast from gossip and feast on holy silence.
Let us fast from shame and feast on the mercy of God.
Let us fast from prejudice and feast on our kinship in Christ.
Let us fast from selfishness and feast on generosity.
Let us fast from worry and feast on the story of God's care.
Let us fast from gloom and feast on the beauty that surrounds us.
Let us fast from busyness and feast on cherishing every moment."
William Arthur Ward
HAPPY FASTING!!!!
BRAND NEW!
Our Coordinator of Elementary Faith Formation, Corinne Cathcart, enlisted the help of our pre-school through high school faith formation disciples to create this AMAZING nineteen minute version of the STATIONS OF THE CROSS. I'm not going to lie, I smiled and cried as I prayed these stations...the church is in great hands!
TWO COMMERCIALS
OUR CORPORAL WORK OF MERCY FOR MARCH
BURY THE DEAD
Tracy Glomski is a member of our parish and completed her initiation into the Church in November when she was Confirmed and joyfully received the Eucharist for the first time. Tracy is a committed member of the Blessed Sacrament CARE Team, and she has put together a beautiful lesson about this month's Corporal Work for those who participate in CARE. Here is some of what she had to share:
"Of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy that we've been exploring, perhaps the hardest work of all is to bury the dead. Certainly it's the most mysterious work! In the Gospels, it isn't even mentioned among the original six works (Matthew 25:35-36) It's a later addition to the list, and an important one.
Facing up to death is one of the most difficult things that anyone can do... Thinking about our own deaths, or the deaths of people we love, may cause us to feel sorrow and anxiety... God desires only life for us, not death... What God created us for, instead, is LOVE. Love is stronger than fear and death and ultimately conquers both of them. This is something that Jesus showed us- in a vivid and astonishing way- when he died, was buried and rose again!"
Thank you Tracy for sharing this lovely reflection with us!
Two Ways to Practice this Month's Corporal Work of Mercy: Bury the Dead
1. Be faithful about attending visitations and funerals of friends and family members.
2. Research where your deceased family members are buried and take a family trip to visit their gravesites and to pray for them.
"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."
Wishing you peace and joy for your journey, Lyn