With Lent here, it’s a good time to ask the question, “Are you ready for it?” or an even better question, “Do you understand it?”
Lent is a complex time in the Church year, we are depriving ourselves, we are reminded of our mortality yet we are to be preparing for the Death and Resurrection of our Lord, a time of celebration….
Talk about emotions running the gamete… The high and lows of life are all put into the 40 days of Lent… We as Catholic/Christians are called to use this time as a time of renewal, a time to prepare for the new life, the new life in Christ.
It’s a time of sacrifice, a time to offer up to God. But many look at it as a time to stop eating candy or drinking pop. Yes they are sacrifice for many, but is that all we need to do?
(Source)
Take 30 minutes to pray, ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance, look over this activities list for the Season of Lent, and make a few practical Lenten resolutions. Be careful. If you try to do too much, you may not succeed in anything. If you need to get up early or stay up late to get the 30 minutes of quiet, do it. Turn off your phone and computer. Don’t put it off and don’t allow interruptions. - During the Season of Lent, Get up earlier than anyone else in your house and spend your first 15 minutes of the day thanking God for the gift of life and offering your day to Him.
- Get to daily Mass.
- If you can’t do Mass daily, go to Mass on Fridays in addition to Sunday and thank Him for laying his life down for you. Maybe you can go another time or two as well.
- Spend at least 30 minutes in Eucharistic adoration at least one time during the week.
- Recover the Catholic tradition of making frequent visits to the Blessed sacrament throughout the week, even if it is only for 5 minutes.
- Get to confession at least once during the Season of Lent after making a good examination of conscience. If you are not sure why confession is important, get my CD “Who Needs Confession.”
- In addition to the penance assigned by the priest, fulfill the conditions necessary for a plenary indulgence. You can learn about plenary indulgences from the official Handbook of Indulgences.
- Make a decision to read at least some Scripture every day. Starting with Today’s!
- Even if you can’t get to daily Mass during the Lenten Season, get a Daily Roman Missal or go visit the Crossroads Homepage for a link to the Daily Mass readings, and read these readings daily. During special seasons such as Lent, the Mass readings are thematically coordinated and make for a fantastic Bible study!
- Pray the Liturgy of the Hours. You can buy a one volume edition or a full four volume edition. Or you can get it day by day online for free at www.universalis.com. Or you can subscribe to a monthly publication called the Magnificat that provides a few things from the liturgy of the hours together with the Mass readings of the day. The Magnificat is a great way to start learning the Liturgy of the Hours.
- Get to know the Fathers of the Church and read selections from them along with Scripture. Short selections from the Fathers writing on Lenten themes can be downloaded for free from the Lenten Library of our website at www.crossroadsintiative.com
- Make the Stations of the Cross each Friday of the Season of Lent either with a group or by yourself. If you have kids, bring them.
Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary often during Lent, especially on Friday and Wednesday. The glorious mysteries are especially appropriate on Sundays. Joyful and Luminous mysteries are great on other days. - Purchase the Scriptural Rosary, which supplies you with a scripture verse to recite between each Hail Mary. This makes it easier to meditate on the mysteries. Another resource to deepen your understanding of the Rosary is my CD set “How Mary and the Rosary can Change Your Life.”
- If you’ve never done a family rosary, begin doing it. If starting with once a week, try Friday or Sunday. If it’s tough to start with a full five decades, try starting with one. Use the Scriptural Rosary and have a different person read each of the Scriptures between the Hail Mary’s. This gets everyone more involved.
- Make it a habit to stop at least five times a day, raise your heart and mind to God, and say a short prayer such as “Jesus, I love you,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or “Lord, I offer it up for you.”
- Pray each day for the intentions and health of the Holy Father.
- Pray each day for your bishop and all the bishops of the Catholic Church.
- Pray for your priests and deacons and for all priests and deacons.
- Pray for the millions of Christians suffering under persecution in various Muslim and Communist countries around the world such as the Sudan, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Viet Nam, and North Korea.
- Pray for Christian unity, that there would be one flock and one shepherd.
- Pray for the evangelization of all those who have not yet heard and accepted the Good News about Jesus.
- Pray for your enemies. In fact, think of the person who has most hurt you or who most annoys you and spend several minutes each day thanking God for that person and asking God to bless him or her.
- Pray for an end to abortion on demand in the United States. Pray for pregnant women contemplating abortion.
- Pray for a just peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Holy Land and elsewhere. Pray for our troops and for others in harm’s way.
- Pray for an end to capital punishment. Pray for those on death row, and for the families of murder victims.
- Find a form of fasting that is appropriate for you, given your age, state of health, and state of life. Some fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays. Some fast from sweets or alcohol throughout Lent. Some fast on one or more days per week from breakfast all the way to dinner, spending lunch hour in prayer or at noon Mass. Some cut out all snacks between meals. The money saved from not buying various things should be given to an apostolate or ministry serving the physically or spiritually poor.
- Prayer is like breathing – you have to do it continually. But sometimes you need to pause and take a very deep breath. That’s what a retreat is. Plan a retreat this Lent. It could be simply a half day, out in nature, or in a Church. Or it could be a full day. Or an overnight. You can certainly read lots of things during your retreat or listen to lots of talks. But try sticking to Scripture, the liturgy, and quiet as much as you can. During or at the end of the retreat, write down what the Holy Spirit seems to be saying.
- Find a written biography of a Saint that particularly appeals to you, and read it during the Season of Lent.
- Instead of secular videos for weekend entertainment, try some videos that will enrich your spiritual life. Suggestions: Jesus of Nazareth, by Franco Zeffirelli, The Scarlet and the Black, the Assisi Underground.
- While driving, turn off the secular radio for awhile and use commute time to listen to some teaching on audiocassette or CD. Some great resources can be purchased through this site or from other Catholic apostolates and publishers that you can find on our links page.
- Find a local homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or crisis pregnancy center, and volunteer some time there throughout Lent. Serve the people there with the understanding that in so doing, you are serving Jesus. Try to see Jesus in each person there.
- Visit someone at a nursing home or in the hospital or sick at home. Again, love Jesus in and through the suffering person.
- Is there a widow or divorced person living in your neighborhood? If so, invite that person to your home for dinner, coffee, etc.
View Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ during Lent on VHS or DVD, if you feel you can handle the violence. Get a copy of The Guide to the Passion to help you get the most out of the movie. - Invite folks to view The Passion of the Christ with you, especially people whose faith is rather nominal, or who do not practice their faith, or who do not profess Christian faith at all. Give them a copy of The Guide to the Passion.
- Spend some focused time with your spouse, strengthening your marriage. Start praying together, or make praying together a more frequent occurrence.
- Spend some focused time together with each of your children. Listen. Pray. Maybe even have fun.
- When Easter comes, don’t drop the new practice you’ve begun during the Season Lent! Make a permanent feature of a deeper Christian life!
God Bless and Happy Lent
Paul
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I love to read, I read books, magazines, newspapers and anything else I can find to read. I love to read different types or styles from Stephen King to Bishop Fulton Sheen. Give me a Catholic book, magazine or newspaper and I will read it. I have read the liberal press and the conservative press. I just love to read. Most people I know read for enjoyment, not to expand their knowledge base, not to learn a new fact or verify a teaching, they just read to be entertained. Me, I read knowledge, I read to grow my mind, my understanding and my ability to process information. I love to find new facts or expand my understanding of what I already know. It doesn’t matter what I am reading, for the most part, with very few exceptions, everything I read teaches me something. I will admit that at times I just want to read, I don’t want to learn anything new, I don’t want to grow, I just want to read. And when that feeling hits me I pick up one of my “car” books, books I have that I place in my car for emergency reading, like when I have a doctors appointment or decide to go out to eat on my own. My “car” books are mindless pocket books, detective type stories, no moral message, just good old fashion 1930’s style detective books. They are good for a fun and easy read, so they make perfect “car” books. But mostly I read to grow…
This fact is nothing new to anyone who has read my blogs before, I often talk about reading and relay some interesting fact along from what I have read. Well this posting is no different, except instead of a fact to pass on this time I am going to pass on a concept, an idea I read. I know I have blogged the same idea or concept along before, but sometimes you just got to keep beating the same drum. Over the weekend I was reading through all my Catholic newspapers I get, it seems that Saturday and Sunday are the only days I get to read them… So I am always playing catch up on the weekend. But be that as it may, I was reading my favorite Catholic Newspaper, The Wanderer, by the way if you do not subscribe to this paper, do so now, it is by far the best paper I have read. What makes me like it so much, it is only 8 pages, the news is conservative and it always has interesting articles. But back to what I was saying, I was reading The Wanderer and ran across an article about abortion, they always includes a pro-life article or two in each weekly paper, this article used and example of how truly ridicules the liberals can be when it comes to there pro-murder stance with adoration. The author used the example of how the government is deciding to regulate soda pop in schools. In-of-itself not a bad thing, but is it truly something the government should be concerned with, is it not more a parenting issue? I think it is, but the liberal government seems to think that they are charged with the health and wellbeing of your child, and they have to look out for and care for them. Once again, as a conservative I feel it is up to the parents and the community to decide if soda pop should be allowed in schools, along with candy bars and pizza and any other unhealthy items. But our Big Brother Government has decided we are to stupid to deal with it. But our government, who is so concerned about our child’s health and well being will allow that same 12 year old, who can not get a soda to get an abortion. Stop and think about that…
Government will not allow soda pop but will allow murder…
Government feels children should be “protected” in schools from harmful things, such as soda and candy, but hands out condoms to 5 year olds like it was candy…
Government requires a parent to be present and notified for an under age child to get an ear piercing or tattoo, but allows a 12 year old to get a major operation to abort the baby, with out parent notification…
Government states that you, the parent, are responsible for that child until they turn 18, yet they undermined your authority at every step of the way. They decided that it is ok for your under aged child to murder another human being, they decide that soda is harmful, yet murder is not.
The article in The Wanderer made the simple comparison of soda banning to abortion, the rest was mine and the list is endless. The nanny state is growing in the country and we, the American People, are allowing it to do so, We are tossing our hands up in the air and allowing the Obama administration to do as they please. Our freedoms as parents and care givers are being striped away, one silly law at a time, our freedoms as law abiding adults are being minimized with each passing day, yet we do nothing, Why? Why do we do nothing, why do we just sit back and allow this to happen? Because we have been sold a bill-of-goods that sounds utopic in nature. We have been told that they care for us, they know best for us, and and by the way here is some money… They have purchased us, and we are becoming powerless, complacent and sedentary. Shame on us, shame on the Catholic Bishops of the United States for not teaching the truth boldly and loudly! And why don’t they, why are the silent on most issues, because most of the Bishops are in the pockets of the liberal Democratic Party of this great nation. Sure they state they are pro=life, but not to loudly for fear that the Democrats may hear them. Sure they write there papers and event send them to the press, but the liberal press will use it only to degrade the Church.
Our Bishops should be marching on DC, demanding that abortion be abolished, that our children should be protected from Planned Parenthood should not be allowed to be in contact with our children. Our Bishops should be teaching and informing the faithful and the true teachings of our faith, the Church established by God. Our Bishops should be speaking out against the Obama administration and its efforts to allow millions of illegal immigrants to gain entry into this country, a act that has nothing to do with compassion but everything to do with the 2012 election. Our Bishops need to take a stand for the faith, the true faith and not some liberation theology version of the faith. And if they refuse to do so, they should leave the church and find one that represents there version of the truth. Harsh I know, but that’s how I feel most of the time. I do not understand Catholics who disagree with 90% of the teachings, yet remain Catholic. Our Bishops need to hold the Catholic politicians feet to the fire of truth, calling them in, confronti
ng them with the truth and forcing the issue at hand. Basically our Bishops need to stand up and be men, be the voice of the Church, the voice of Christ calling out in to the wilderness and calling His sheep back in to the fold. They need to stand tall and strong in the face of deception, toll the line of truth and fly the flag of our Church, The Church established by Jesus Christ, the visible Church here on earth.
The more I read, the more passion I get for the Truth, for the Faith. The more I learn the more love I have for my Church and Her teachings. I may not understand them all, and I may wish at some of Her teachings were not, but that is a human problem, my problem, not Hers. Reading provides me with the ability to discover the truth, in my own time and way. Be it Stephen King or Catholic Answers Magazine, The Truth will shine through the pages. The Truth will set you free, a lesson we all need to learn and relearn on a daily basis. The Bishops would be smart to remember this, and to teach this truth.
Please know that in no way do I assume that all Bishops are failing in there duties. Most are, i assumed, good and holy people. But over all the Catholic voice in America is silent, and that voice belongs to the Bishops. Yes Catholic laity and priest and other religious have a duty to proclaim the Good News to all the ends of the earth, but it is our Bishops who should be leading us, teaching us and guiding us.
God Bless
Paul
| Matthew 4:4“Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
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