Lent -- Easter 2010, Reflections, Prayer, Actions Day by Day

Ash Wednesday Ping!

ASH WEDNESDAY

" Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return."
Gn. 3:19

Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. (Joel 2:13)

Reflection.
The liturgical use of ashes originated in the Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).
Jesus made reference to ashes, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Matthew 11:21).
In the Middle Ages, the priest would bless the dying person with holy water, saying, "Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return."
The Church adapted the use of ashes to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins. In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." As we begin this holy season of Lent in preparation for Easter, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received: We mourn and do penance for our sins. We again convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation. We renew the promises made at our baptism, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ. Finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in heaven.

Lenten Question
Q: What is Lent?
A: Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). [This traditional ennumeration does not precisely coincide with the calendar according to the liturgical reform. In order to give special prominence to the Sacred Triduum (Mass of the Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) the current calendar counts Lent as only from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, up to the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Even so, Lenten practices are properly maintained up to the Easter Vigil, excluding Sundays, as before.]

Lenten Action.
Invite a non-practicing friend to Mass with you.

Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, you despise nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our brokenness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Ash Wednesday is a day of both fasting and abstinence.

Thursday After Ash Wednesday

"Whoever wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in my steps." (Luke 9:23)

Reflection.
WHAT TO GIVE UP . . .

Give up complaining. . . . . . . .focus on gratitude.
Give up pessimism. . . . . . . . . become an optimist.
Give up harsh judgments . . .think kindly thoughts.
Give up worry. . . . . . . . . . . . . trust Divine Providence.
Give up discouragement. . . . .be full of hope.
Give up bitterness. . . . . . . . . . turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred. . . . . . . . . . . . . return good for evil.
Give up negativism . . . . . . . . .be positive.
Give up anger. . . . . . . . . . . . . .be more patient.
Give up pettiness. . . . . . . . . . .become mature.
Give up gloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . .enjoy the beauty that is all around you.
Give up jealousy. . . . . . . . . . . .pray for trust.
Give up gossiping. . . . . . . . . . .control your tongue.
Give up sin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . turn to virtue.
Give up giving up. . . . . . . . . . . hang in there!

Lenten Question
Q: Why are the forty days called Lent?
A: They are called Lent because that is the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term, or "the forty days."

Lenten Action.
Think of a person with whom you have a strained relationship and make some gesture toward improving that relationship.

Prayer
Direct our actions, Lord, by your holy inspiration and carry them forward by your gracious help, that all our works may begin in you and by you be happily ended.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Friday After Ash Wednesday

The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed. (Isaiah 58:6)

Reflection.
We must always remember what God tells us in Scripture: "Even if a mother could forget the child in her womb" - something impossible, but even if she could forget - "I will never forget you."
And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people first. And find out about your next-door neighbors. Do you know who they are?
I had the most extraordinary experience of love of neighbor with a Hindu family. A gentleman came to our house and said: "Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger. I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And the mother of the family took the rice I gave her and went out. When she came back, I asked her: "Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple answer: "They are hungry also." What struck me was that she knew - and who are they? A Muslim family - and she knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening because I wanted them, Hindus and Muslims, to enjoy the joy of sharing. ..... Mother Teresa

Lenten Question
Q: What is a day of fast and abstinence?
A: Under current canon law in the Western Rite of the Church, a day of fast is one on which Catholics who are eighteen to sixty years old are required to keep a limited fast. In this country, one may eat a single, normal meal and have two snacks, so long as these snacks do not add up to a second meal. Children are not required to fast, but their parents must ensure they are properly educated in the spiritual practice of fasting. Those with medical conditions requiring a greater or more regular food intake can easily be dispensed from the requirement of fasting by their pastor. A day of abstinence is a day on which Catholics fourteen years or older are required to abstain from eating meat (under the current discipline in America, fish, eggs, milk products, and condiments or foods made using animal fat are permitted in the Western Rite of the Church, though not in the Eastern Rites.) Again, persons with special dietary needs can easily be dispensed by their pastor.

Lenten Action.
Schedule a fifteen minute period of silence today to listen to your heart and to the Lord speaking to you..

Prayer
Lord, with your loving care guide the penance we have begun. Help us to persevere with love and sincerity.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Saturday After Ash Wednesday

If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness. (Isaiah 58:10)

Reflection.
"Repent, and believe in the gospel," Jesus told the crowds (Mark 1:15).
Perhaps at times we listen to sermons or read the gospels and apply the message to others. Often we can think of many people who need to repent. However we must be careful not to apply the gospel only to others. This call to repentance applies first of all to you and me. Recall that Jesus often preached in the synagogues and at the temple. He was preaching to the church goers and church workers. The call to repentance was not just to those sinners out there. The message of repentance is for Church leaders and workers. It is for you and me.

Lenten Question
Q: When does Lent begin?
A: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is the day on which the faithful have their foreheads signed with ashes in the form of a Cross. It is also a day of fast and abstinence.

Lenten Action.
Make a note on your calendar to participate in the Sacrament of Penance.

Prayer
Father,
look upon our weakness and reach out to help us with your loving power.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

First Sunday of Lent

"I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9:13)

Reflection.
“The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and dost thou seek rest and joy? If thou carry the cross unwillingly, thou makest it a burden to thee. If thou fling away one cross, without doubt thou shalt find another, perhaps a heavier”
...." (Thomas de Kempis -- Imitation of Christ).

Lenten Question
Q: Why are Sundays excluded from the reckoning of the forty days?
A: Because Sunday is the day on which Christ arose, making it an inappropriate day to fast and mourn our sins. On Sunday we must celebrate Christ's resurrection for our salvation. It is Friday on which we commemorate his death for our sins. The Sundays of the year are days of celebration and the Fridays of the year are days of penance.

Lenten Action.
Phone a long lost friend and relive old memories. Visit a sick person. Feed the birds.

Prayer
O Jesus, I withdraw in spirit with You into the desert; teach me how to fight the triple concupiscence of the flesh, pride, and avarice.

Monday, First Week of Lent

"I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me." (Matthew 25:40)

Reflection.
It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor.
St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is not true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me. It hurt Jesus to love us.
We have been created in His image for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must "put on Christ" as Scripture tells us. And so, we have been created to love as He loves us. Jesus makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and He says, "You did it to Me." On the last day He will say to those on His right, "whatever you did to the least of these, you did to Me, and He will also say to those on His left, whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do it for Me."
When He was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, "I thirst." Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts ...Mother Teresa

Lenten Question
Q: Is there a biblical basis for abstaining from meat as a sign of repentance?
A: Yes. The book of Daniel states: "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia . . . 'I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.'" (Daniel 10:1-3)

Lenten Action.
Give a donation to charity.

Prayer
Healer of body and soul, cure the sickness in my spirit so that I may grow in holiness through your constant care. Amen

Tuesday, First Week of Lent

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father....’" (Matthew 6:8-9)

Reflection.
. . .AND GOD SAID "NO."

I asked God to take away my pride,
And God said "No."
He said it was not for Him to take away,
But for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole,
and God said, "No."
He said her spirit is eternal,
While her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience,
And God said, "No."
He said patience is a by-product of tribulation.
It isn't granted - it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness,
And God said "No."
He said He gives blessings,
Happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me pain,
And God said "No."
He said, "Suffering draws you apart from
Worldly cares and brings you close to Me."

I asked God to make my spirit grow,
And God said "No."
He said I must grow on my own,
But he will prune me to make it fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me,
And God said "Yes."
He gave me His only Son, who died for me,
And I will be in heaven someday
Because I believe.

I asked God to help me love others
As much as He loves me,
And God said,
"Ah, finally you have the idea."
.....by Claudia Minden Welsz

Lenten Fact
The word "lent" means "lengthen" and stands for that time in spring when the days grow longer.

Lenten Action.
Schedule a fifteen minute period of silence today to listen to your heart and to the Lord speaking to you.

Prayer
God our Savior,
bring us back to you and fill our minds with your wisdom.
May we be enriched by our observance of Lent. Amen

Thursday, First Week of Lent

"Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

Reflection.

The object of our prayer-life is to empty ourselves and be filled with the Trinity. The first thing Jesus did when He became Man was to empty Himself.
"His state was Divine, yet He did not cling to His equality with God, but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave and become as men are; and as all men are, He was humbler yet." (Phil. 2:6,7)
Our mission in life, then, is to cooperate with God's Grace and empty ourselves and be filled with the Trinity.
We are not to seek detachment to be free of responsibility, but to enable us to love both God and man with a pure love.
We are not to withdraw from the world to be alone, but to be with God.
We are to do penance, not because it erases our guilt, but because it wipes away the traces of sin.
We are to empty ourselves, not for the sake of self-control, but to be filled with God- transformed into Jesus.
There is no definite method by which we can become selfless. Each one of us has a particular virtue and faults that make the process of becoming like Jesus different. We must look at Jesus, read His Word in Scripture and ask His Spirit to enlighten our minds and give us that particular way by which we can best attain the goal He has set for us .... Mother Angelica

Lenten Question

Q: Why is giving up something for Lent such a salutary custom?
A: By denying ourselves something we enjoy, we discipline our wills so that we are not slaves to our pleasures. Just as indulging the pleasure of eating leads to physical flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in physically demanding situations, indulging in pleasure in general leads to spiritual flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in spiritually demanding situations, when the demands of morality require us to sacrifice something pleasurable (such as sex before marriage or not within the confines of marriage) or endure hardship (such as being scorned or persecuted for the faith). By disciplining the will to refuse pleasures when they are not sinful, a habit is developed which allows the will to refuse pleasures when they are sinful. There are few better ways to keep one's priorities straight than by periodically denying ourselves things of lesser priority to show us that they are not necessary and focus our attention on what is necessary.

Lenten Action.

Pray a rosary for the conversion of all who are far from the Lord.

Prayer

Lord, look upon us and hear our prayer. By the good works You inspire, help us to discipline our bodies and to be renewed in spirit. Amen.

Friday, First Week of Lent

The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

"Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 5:20)

Reflection.

HOW TO FAST

Fast from judging others;
Feast on Christ dwelling in them.

Fast from apparent darkness;
Feast on the reality of light.

Fast from pessimism;
Feast on optimism.

Fast from thoughts of illness;
Feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute;
Feast on phrases that purify.

Fast from anger;
Feast on patience.

Fast from worry;
Feast on Divine Providence.

Fast from unrelenting pressure;
Feast on unceasing prayer.

Fast from negatives;
Feast on positives.

Fast from complaining;
Feast on appreciation.

Fast from hostility;
Feast on non-resistance.

Fast from bitterness;
Feast on forgiveness.

Fast from anxiety;
Feast on hope.

Fast from yourself;
Feast on a silent heart.

Lenten Question

Q: Why are the forty days called Lent?
A: They are called Lent because that is the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term , or "the forty days."

Lenten Action.

Be generous with your compliments today, especially to those who appear to be "down".

Prayer

I enter on this path of repentance so that in dying to self I might rise to new life.

Saturday, First Week of Lent

"If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that?" (Matthew 5:46)

Reflection.
St. Dominic Savio was born in Italy in 1842. One day when he was just four, he disappeared and his good mother went looking for him. She found the little fellow in a corner praying with his hands joined and his head bowed. He already knew all his prayers by heart! At five, he was an altar boy.
When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion. On that solemn day, he chose a motto: "Death, but not sin!" and he kept it always. "A teenager such as Dominic, who bravely struggled to keep his innocence from Baptism to the end of his life, is really a saint," said Pope St. Pius X. At the age of twelve, Dominic entered the school run by St. John Bosco. Don Bosco examined him first and at the end of the questions, Dominic asked, "What do you think of me?"
"I think you're good material," answered the priest, with a big smile.
"Well, then," said Dominic, "You are a good tailor, so if the material is good, take me and make a new suit out of me for Our Lord!"
Everyone in the school saw from the way he prayed that this boy was different. He greatly loved all the boys, and even though he was younger, he used to worry about them. He was afraid that they would lose the grace of God by sinning.
One day, a fellow brought a magazine full of bad pictures to school. In a minute, a group of boys had gathered around him to see it.
"What's up?" wondered Dominic, and he, too, went to look. Just one peek was enough for him. He grabbed the magazine and tore it to pieces! "Poor us!" he cried in the meantime, "Did God give us eyes to look at such things as this? Aren't you ashamed?"
"Oh, we were just looking at these pictures for the fun of it," said one boy.
"Sure, for fun," answered Dominic, "and in the meantime you're preparing yourselves to go to hell!"
"Oh, what's so wrong about looking at these pictures anyway?" another fellow demanded.
Dominic had a ready answer. "If you don't see anything wrong," he said sadly, "this is even worse." It means you're used to looking at shameful things!"
No one said anything after that. They all realized that Dominic was right. Another time he stopped a terrific stone-throwing fight between two angry boys. Holding up a little crucifix between them, he said, "Before you fight, look at this and say, 'Jesus Christ was innocent and He died forgiving His murderers. I am a sinner, and I am going to hurt Him by not forgiving my enemies.' Then you can start - and throw your first stone at me!"
The two boys were so ashamed of themselves that they apologized, and promised to go to confession too.

One day Dominic began to feel sick and was sent home to get better. While at home he grew worse, instead, and received the last Sacraments. He was only fifteen then, but he did not fear
death. In fact, he was overjoyed at the thought of going to Heaven. Just before he died, he tried to sit up.
"Goodbye," he murmured to his good father. Suddenly his face lit up with a smile of great joy and happiness. "I am seeing such wonderful things!" he exclaimed. Then he spoke no more, for he had gone to Heaven.
Dominic is the patron saint of choir boys and of the falsely accused.
This latter title was given to him due to the following incident. One time, two boys filled the school stove with snow and garbage during the cold winter months. When the teacher came back into the room, they falsely accused Dominic of doing the "dirty" deed. Although disciplined in front of the entire class, Dominic refused to tell on the two mischievous boys. When the truth was later revealed, Dominic was asked why he didn't confess to his innocence. He remarked that he was imitating Our Lord, Who remained silent during His persecutions and crucifixion.

Lenten Fact
Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, is celebrated in many parts of the world with feasting. The French call it
"Mardi Gras". The Germans call it "Fausching". The feasting comes from the custom of using up household fats prior to the
40 days of Lenten fasting, when no fat is used.

Lenten Action.

In a prayerful spirit, get up early and watch the sun rise.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death you endured. I love you and joyfully bear the name 'Christian.' Teach me to follow your example. Increase my faith, hope and charity so that I may struggle to turn hatred to love and conflict to peace.

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