This Lenten reflection acknowledges the brokenness of our lives and in our world and encourages us to find repentance through Christ. You can purchase, a high resolution copy can be downloaded from http://www.lulu.com/content/6167446 ...
Reflection for Lent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gePC_XfXujE
Several Arkansans answered the call and said they wanted to "pay it forward" during Lent.
Three $100 grants were handed out by Arkansas Catholic this week to an individual, school and Catholic organization that will grow their investment through Holy Week and hopefully make a difference in their community or world.
It is the first year the diocesan newspaper has hosted The Pay It Forward Campaign. An anonymous donor provided the grant money.
The campaign's concept is based on the New Testament parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-28. A 2000 dramatic movie, starring Kevin Spacey, made the phrase "pay it forward" popular. According to the movie, "When someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back. Pay it forward."
This year's winners are:
St. John School, Hot Springs
Linda Good, eighth grade teacher, will work with her students to make cupcakes and trail mix and sell them on Mondays at the school and to other Catholic churches in the county after weekend Masses. Good said her students were eager to help the parish's sister church and school in Haiti and came up with the idea of the bake sale to support St. Andrew School in Calladere.
"I only have 12 students (which I call my disciples), but look what Jesus accomplished with only his 12 apostles," Good wrote in their application. "We just hope to follow the greatest teacher that ever lived and raise money for Mission Haiti."
Ladies of Charity of Arkansas, Little Rock
Sandy DeCoursey, executive vice president for the Ladies of Charity of Arkansas, wrote that each member will be given $5, a copy of parable and the "Pay It Forward" challenge. Each member will be asked to grow their $5 by participating with one of their current projects, such as making cookies for the homeless, assisting with the urban garden for the elderly and immigrants or making layettes for pregnant, unwed mothers.
"The Pay It Forward campaign is the perfect Lenten challenge for each LCArk member to promote the mission of the Ladies of Charity: to serve rather than be served in humility, simplicity and charity," she wrote.
Elizabeth J. Thomas, Immaculate Heart of March Church, North Little Rock (Marche)
She will be challenging 100 parishioners to make a commitment to "living a giving life through Christ." Each participant or family will get $1 and be challenged to make sacrifices during Lent, such as not eating at restaurants, going to movies or buying video games. The money saved would be donated to the cause.
"With the prayer time, reflection and learning to think of others' needs before our own fleshly desires, the person or family ... will benefit first and then a worthy cause like those without necessities will have basic needs provided to them."
Thomas wrote that she would like the money to support a sister parish or third-world mission.
By Malea Hargett, Editor
Three winners using Lent to 'pay it forward' | Arkansas Catholic | February 28, 2009
http://www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=1636
"Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering." The Liturgy of the Hours
At the hour of trial, at the moment of temptation, it is faith that recalls to us God’s sovereign right to the obedience of His creature, His infinite holiness, the adorable exigencies of His justice, the indescribable sufferings with which Jesus expiated sin, the gratuity of grace, the necessity of prayer, the eternity of pain with which God punishes the sinner who dies unrepentant, the endless beatitude with which He magnificently rewards the fidelity of a few years. All these truths are repeated to us by faith; and however redoutable the darts of the enemy may be, however violent his suggestions, however prolonged the combat, a soul that has living faith finds in her faith and in her union with Christ, which is born of faith, the power of resistance, the very principle of her stability in good, the true secret of victory.
Blessed is the soul,—God Himself tells us so—blessed is the soul that endures temptation without exposing herself to it; who, relying upon the Divine promises, passes through fire, with the eye of faith intent upon Christ’s words and example; that soul will triumph even here below, and will later receive the reward of her generosity and love: BEATUS vir qui suffert tentationem quoniam cum pro batus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se (Jac. I, 12).
The Baptism -Temptation of Jesus
by Abbot Marmion, OSB
Christ in His Mysteries for Lent
http://www.cin.org/liter/baptmarm.html
Q: Father John, How can I better prepare for Lent this year?
A: You have no idea what God has in store for you this Lent (but God does, and he is looking forward to it!). On the other hand, you do know that God has chosen to work in our souls through the Liturgy, and that includes the liturgical seasons. So preparing for Lent means getting ready to hear and heed what God wants to say to you during those days. The Church gives us three general directives in this regard.
First, intensify our prayer life. Start thinking now about how you can do this. It’s a good topic to talk about in spiritual direction. Do you need to increase your Eucharistic life, give more discipline to your personal prayer time, inculcate family prayer time, go on a retreat? God will put something on your heart. But be realistic. Don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach (in the spiritual sense).
Second, embrace the Cross. Lent is a penitential season, a time when we remember how self-centered we have been and tend to be, and renew our commitment and efforts at repenting and growing in Christian love. This is the origin of the tradition of “giving something up for Lent.” The idea is to make a sacrifice, denying our naturally self-indulgent tendencies in some way in order to unite ourselves more fully to Christ’s redeeming sacrifice on Calvary. This is not merely a self-help kind of resolution. It is a self-offering to God: “Lord, many times I have chosen to do my own will instead of yours. By offering this sacrifice I want to learn to take up my cross, to say “yes” to you and your will, following in Jesus’ footsteps.” Whatever we give up (e.g. watching sports, eating desert) or take on (e.g. daily Mass, weekly Way of the Cross) as our Lenten sacrifice (again, be realistic), the key is to give it that truly Christ-centered meaning.
Third, the practice Christian charity. Lent is a time to prepare for the fruitful celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection during Holy Week. That Paschal Mystery was God’s unfathomable and amazing testimony of love for us sinners. There is no better way to get in tune with that self-forgetful and self-sacrificial love than by imitating it. During Lent we should make a special point of serving our neighbors – but here again, be realistic. Here the traditional corporal works of mercy can spark ideas. The Catechism reminds us of them (#2447):
Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.243 Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God
Something in the air of spring brings out new buds, new branches, new life. The word “Lent” has its etymological roots in an Old English word meaning “spring.” Something in the air of Lent will bring out new buds, new branches, new life in our relationship with Christ; we just have to open up some windows.
Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek
. . . So perhaps we ought to look at the “exile” of Lent, as well as that of our whole earthly life, as a time of preparation for the vision of God, for the return to Paradise, because “there we shall behold the surpassing beauty of the Master.” For Christians, all of life has this ultimate goal and we ought to be clear about it and order our lives accordingly. . . .
Word Incarnate Blog
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/poor-banished-children-of-eve/
Abbot Joseph's Final-hour Mop-up Ministry:
This ministry is probably going to arouse the ire of those dark powers who are about to pop the corks on their champagne bottles as they prepare to receive more wretched souls into their infernal houses of horror, only to find them suddenly snatched away into Paradise by the power of Jesus’ Sacrifice. But hey, you only live once.
Word Incarnate Blog
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/mop-up-ministry/
Ash Wednesday - February 25thMessage of His Holiness Benedict XVI for LENT 2009
. . . "Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing."
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20081211_lent-2009_en.html
In the heart of a city where millions of people carry their daily cross, most of the time dreadfully alone: if God exists, He has nothing to do with my daily life. This is the true cross of every day, the cross of a person abandoned only to himself in his most inner need for a never-ending love, truth, beauty, and justice.We need the presence of “God-with-us”, Jesus every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us every day.
The Way of the Cross in the heart of the city is a simple, humble sign offered to ourselves and to everyone as a witness to His merciful presence in our daily lives and as a plea, through His cross and resurrection, that our eyes and heart may be opened to His presence.
There will be noise on the bridge, possibly confusion. It is the very noise and confusion of our city, where we spend our days. We will need to desire great attention in order to follow Jesus and to fix our gaze on the event of His passion. It is that very same attention that is needed to look at the event of His presence among us every day.
This is why we suggest maintaining silence all along the Way of the Cross, a silence in front of God dying for us, a silence that isn’t merely not speaking, but is the simplest, purest way to beg to recognize His presence in our daily life.
This poem is based on recollections of childhood Good Friday services held in churches from 12-3pm followed by the liturgy. Sometimes we would move from one parish to another to hear different sermons.
Join the public Way of the Cross tomorrow in these cities around the country. See you there!
The Way of the Cross or Stations of the Cross is an ancient devotion in the Church which began as a pilgrimage to the holy sites of Christ's passion. Our Lady was said to have visited these places daily. The Via Dolorosa pilgrimage has a tradition that dates back to the time of The earliest use of the word Stations, as applied to the accustomed halting-places in the Via Sacra at Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Wey, who visited the Holy Land in 1458 and again in 1462, and who describes the manner in which it was then usual to follow the footsteps of Christ in His sorrowful journey. It seems that up to that time it had been the general practice to commence at
In medieval Europe, when the Holy Lands became inaccessible due to war, local Stations of the Cross arose as a public and private devotion developed from these original pilgrimages, and artists depicted these passion events in pictures and sculptures for churches. Pilgrims then walked from station to station, reciting prayers, meditations and songs. The medieval hymn Stabat Mater Dolorosa is still frequently sung for public stations of the cross.
On Good Friday, public Processions of the Cross will take place all over the
Way of the Cross, Good Friday, April 6, 2007 throughout the
Lenten Companion: Illustrated Online Stations of the Cross
Christus Rex Via Crucis Jerusalem
Catholic Encyclopedia, "Way of the Cross"
Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum, led by Pope John Paul II, Good Friday 2000
If you're like me, you may have longed for - or even planned - a way to really get into Lent this year. Perhaps a more austere form of fasting, or giving service beyond the usual. Each year, I spend a lot of time ruminating about exactly what practice is the RIGHT one for me this year.This post is interesting because this year I'm aware that sometimes I'd like to choose that one thing and then think I've done Lent. That attitude makes me uncomfortable. She writes about how Lent is an opportunity for a personal response to the Lord's call to my heart. She describes how one of the fathers responded to the question, "What good thing shall I do?"
This way of looking at the question of what we should do suggests that Lent can keep opening up, instead of closing on our preferred penance. And it's never too late to start, or re-start.I heard that he replied: "Not all works are alike.The elder reframes the question in two ways. He verifies the idea that there are differences among good works, so some may be better than others. But he immediately considers three of the holiest figures in the Old Testament, and show that their works were utterly different, yet God had been equally present and powerful in each of their lives. How, then can we choose the type of good work we should do?
For scripture says that Abraham was hospitable and God was with him.
Elijah loved solitary prayer, and God was with him.
And David was humble, and God was with him."The elder said: "Therefore, whatever you see your soul to desire according to God, do that thing, and you shall keep your heart safe."
As odd as it may strike us at first, it is true. God has created us to be restless! What may seem to be a defect is really a feature, God's homing beacon in our hearts. As Genesis tells us, we are created in God's image and likeness. That reality is profound, but among other things it means that from the moment of our conception, God looked up us, loved what he saw and immediately called us back to himself. That's the fundamental source of restlessness. Jesus even built this yearning to return to God into our prayer life when he taught us to pray "thy kingdom come." It is downright Christian to be restless.The Bishop goes on to show how our restlessness sometimes sends us off in the wrong direction, because we try to fill it with useless things. He concludes:
During Lent we are asked to evaluate life and realize that it reaches its fullest glory after this body of ours returns to dust. Ashes are not the end. They are only the beginning of the "resting" in God's presence, for which we were created and for which we long.
Jesus sees horrendous deathfrom Hymn #67, Jesus in Agony, St. Louis de Montfort
Closing in with threatening look
To conquer Him,
The Almighty though He be.
Sinners, it is for us
That He suffers these sorrows.
The Cross is the definitive revelation of love and divine mercy, also for us, men and women of our time too often distracted by worldly and momentary concerns and interests. God is love and His love is the secret of our happiness. To enter into this mystery of love there is no other way than that of losing ourselves, giving ourselves, the way of the Cross.
“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37). This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross, consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn 19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze, therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God.Message of Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2007
