Job, Me and Lent

I have written several religious formation books for use in the classroom, I have tackled Mosses and the flight from slavery, I have looked at the Book of Acts and even delved into the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but the one book I have always wanted to take on was the Book of Job. This book, Jobs story, has always fascinated me, and I feel there are so many hidden gems with in the text. The fabric of Job is rich and textured that I know lessons lay between the words of the book. Yet I have never followed that vision, that dream to write a formation book based on Job. Maybe I will, one day, or maybe I will use Job in other ways. This I know, it is one of my favorite books in the Bible, the story of poor Job just seems to touch me.

I would like to think it’s because I connect with Job, but I know this is not true, Job was a righteous man, pleasing to the eye of God, he was a rich man, with many blessings. I am no righteous man nor am I rich. Job had a family, wife and children, I am single, and Job had oxen and ass, and well, I’m just an ass with no oxen. So no, it’s not that I connect with Job on any physical level.

Job had faith, a trust in God that I can only strive for, we was steadfast in his convictions, even as he lost all he had, he was still faithful. 

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.”

²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Job 1: 20-22

No, Job was one of a kind, he had faith that most of us only dream of. Yet Job seems so real, so accessible to me, he does not seem out of reach, but rather he seems humble and down to earth. Just the man next store type of guy. There is something likeable and pleasant about Job, and about his story. You feel his sufferings and trials. Yet you know his faith will pull him through. You know Job lives by the old saying “For the Grace of God go I”. A saying that I often us in my daily speech, a saying that I try to live by, a saying the Job exemplifies.

Job is the perfect picture of acceptance, of letting go and letting God. Yes Job was man, so there for he was also fallen and sin was in his nature. He was not a god, nor was he God. He was not born sinless, and he, I am sure, did not die sinless. But he was contrite and humble, he was steadfast and prayerful and most of all he was obedient to the Lord.

Maybe this is why I am drawn to Job, not because he and I are so much alike, but because he and I are so different, because I want to be like Job, I want to emulate his trust and faith, I want to experience his deep conviction and to feel God within me as Job did. Maybe I am drawn to him because I lack so much of him within.

This Lent read the book of Job, meditate on his plight, on his trust and his faith, and read of his family and friends and others who lacked trust in the Lord, I think we, well I know I, will find ourselves more in them than in Job. 

His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

¹⁰ He replied, “You are talking like a foolish^[b] woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job 2: 9-10

Are most of us more like his wife than like him? When things seem not to go our way, we tend to blame God, to curse him, and if anyone in the bible seemed to have the right to curse God, it was Job. This man did nothing to deserve the trials he was enduring, he was a good and faithful man, yet God allowed the Devil to tempt him, and Job never wavered, he just endured.

And we complain about 40 days of Lent! The sacrifice we make, giving up meet on Friday compared to Job, who lost all he had. How sad we truly are, how unworthy we truly are. Yet God does not give up on us, just as he had faith in Job, he has the same faith in us. If only we could have the same faith as Job.

Lent offer us the time to reflect, to reflect upon the Cross, the Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord, use the 40 days of Lent to read Job, to understand Job and to see the Cross, Tomb and Risen Lord in all the Job endures. Journal about how Job and his trials can become your trials, how Job’s faith can become your faith, how The Book of Job can become a book of you.

God Bless & Happy Lent

Paul Sposite

(Note: The Guided Insight Life Coach website is currently down)

Related articles

• What is your Focus this Lent? (anamericanpointofview.wordpress.com)
• Misquoting Jesus (lessfruit.wordpress.com)
• The Sit-Down-and-Shut-Up School of Theology (lessfruit.wordpress.com)
• Faith: Affirmation “THEN” Confirmation (spmcconsulting.wordpress.com)
• The Bible – the Story of Our Soul’s Journey Through the Plane of Duality – Draws to a Close (pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com)
• The Integrity of Job (media4lifeministries.com)
• Testing Your Faith (spiritlightbooks.wordpress.com)
• A Real Fairy Tale Ending – Job 42:12 (dianneguthmuller.com)
• Lord, Tell Me What I Have Done Wrong – Job 13:23 (dianneguthmuller.com)
• Bishop urges faithful to face ‘the reality of hell’ in Lent (mumbailaity.wordpress.com)
• FEAR NOT – Part 2 of 2 (tnlighthouse.wordpress.com)
• “Being Aware of Satan’s Tactics” (verticalviewer.wordpress.com)
• What I’m Giving Up For Lent (ourchangingviews.wordpress.com)
• Job, A Problematic Story for Evangelical Christians (fallenfromgrace.net)
• A Fine Day (jmwisdom.wordpress.com)
• Where Were You? (adifferentstory.net)

 

I don't have a cross…

Master, how do I carry my cross? Master, what shall I use to fashion my cross? Master, how do I humble myself? Master, how do I live my life as a follower of you when I am but a simple human?

Lent is a time of reflection, a time to reflect upon the cross of Jesus and upon our own crosses. Yet many of us refuse to even acknowledge that we have a cross. We are more than willing to except that Jesus has a cross and that he carried it up Calvary, yet we fail to understand that the cross Jesus carried was not his own. His cross is our cross. So if we reject that we even have a cross how can we accept that Jesus had one?

We are sinners, plain and simple. We are a fallen race, our first parents made sure of that for us, and we suffer under the weight of their cross. And being sinners we have created our own cross, have fashioned them from the wood of greed and self love.  Our own human ego covers our crosses with the shroud of vanity. We see the cross of Jesus as his own personal cross and not as the cross of salvation for humanity. We fail to remember that He was sinless and that the sins of our own nailed him to the cross. Our weakness of flesh sacrificed the Lamb of God.

Lent offers us a time to stop and look deeply at ourselves, lent teaches us to see our cross and Jesus teaches us how to die in to the new life of the resurrection. Lent is about sacrifice, not of food or TV, but a sacrifice of humanity. We are all to die unto ourselves so that we can be born into Christ.

“Repent and prepare the way”   John the Baptist had it right, Lent is preparation for the baptism of blood, the blood of our Lord that was shed  for our sins, not his, for he was sinless.

Jesus was sinless and we are shameless…  

The world has taught us not to take responsibility for our own actions, but rather we are to place the blame on others. Modern thinking is one that pushes rather than pulls. We push off our responsibility on to others, but push off the blame and hard work. We look for ways to push away anything that makes us uncomfortable; we want life to be someone else’s responsibility. In times that have passed we use to pull more towards ourselves; we took blame and sought out responsibility and were egger to carry the heavy burden when no one else was able to or willing to.

My parents went through some hard times as did their parents, yet I never heard my parents complain. I am sure they did and I am sure tears were shed but they never bothered to burden me with it. I never heard them blame others for their hardship nor did they look for excuses. They lived life as it was dealt to them. Some hands they made themselves through bad decisions and some hands just appeared. But that’s life.

Today it is much different, today I hear blame everywhere. Parents are more than willing to sit there children down and place upon them the burdens they must bear.  They are more than willing to blame the government or employer for their own bad decisions. They are willing to allow others, including their own children, to carry their cross, all in an effort to deny the cross they have created. Yet they are more than willing to point out the crosses of their neighbors.

“Repent” is the call from the wilderness that we all must hear. Lent is a time of reflection, a time to look upon the cross of Jesus and the cross of ourselves. Lent is a time to reexamine our outlook on life and our “inlook” on self. Jesus tells us that we must be willing to pick up our cross if we wish to follow him; this implies that we have a cross, each and every one of us, yet we still fail to see our own.

What a sad thing it is, that we are willing to allow others to bear our cross, willing to allow others to suffer for our failures yet we are unwilling to admit we have even failed!

Repent!

God Bless

Paul

 

Rediscover the power of Responsibility

I think we all have days where we feel like Job, that the whole world is out for me and that God has left me to my own devices.

 

Job, that poor man, was a good and honest man, deeply faithful and rich in both material and spiritual ways. But Job, because of his holiness, was chosen by God and Satin to undergo a test of sorts, a test of his resolve.

 

The devil was convinced that any human would crumble under stress renounce God and give himself over to satin.

 

So what did poor Job have to deal with?

 

·         Death of his children

·         Loss of his money

·         Loss of his land

·         Loss of his friends

·         Illness

 

And so on, the devil poured it all on, thick as he could, leavening little room for faith to enter Job at all. But Job took stock, and held strong to his faith.

 

Yep, and we think we have it bad, just look at poor Job, he lost it all. If you have never read the book of Job I would recommend it, by the time you get done with it you will think “My problems are not so bad”. Yep, the book of Job will put your life in to perspective.

I think that’s what the book is about, perspective. Job’s friends could not understand why Job just didn’t give up on God, it was obvious to them that God gave up on him, But Job held strong, sure he had him moments of weakness, but in the end the faith of Job got him through it all.

In today’s economic situations there are probable a lot of people who feel like Job, that God must be testing them, that they are part of a game between the devil and God. I would have to say, ummm… NO. I would have to venture to guess that it most likely is a problem created by our own sins, unlike Job who did nothing wrong, we have created this mess on our own. We have over purchased and indulged ourselves in to a life style that had to fall, we could not keep it up forever, so now it comes crashing down. Life has a way of correcting itself, and this is the correction.

We have sinned through our gluttony of wants:

·         Large House

·         Lattes electronic gadgets

·         Best Cars

·         Name brand mania

We decided somewhere along the way that these items and many others had become entitlements, that for some reason we were owed them. And if we were not given them we would get them on our own some way or another. The world and especially America has become selfish, we want the best of everything and we want it now! Except we had no way to pay for it, so we are paying for it now.

Times are only going to get harder, the sooner we learn that we are not owed anything from the government that we are responsible for our own failures, the sooner we will recover. President Obama has signed in to law the largest spending bill in the history of the United States, in fact if you added all the spending bills from the time of the first President until President Bush, this one bill President Obama signed is larger than the total of them all. Think about that for a second…. We are looking to a government that is willing to spend us in to poverty to rescue us! We are looking to the government to fix our problems when we should be looking to God and to ourselves. Haven’t we learned yet?

How much more will it take for us to see that we must be responsible for ourselves, that the government is not the answer to our problems. How slow are we to learn that spending will not lead us to a sound economic recovery. When will we see that government oversight of our lives, that a nanny state is not true authentic freedom? How many more lives must be sacrificed to the god of government before we understand that government is there to assist us in our lives, not to provide us with our lives.

God was reluctant to give the Israelites a King, when they asked God for one He was concerned because God understands the human heart and mind better than we. God knew that the human heart and mind would gravitate to the king, and soon the king would replace God as the one we placed our trust in. Job knew were his trust was, his trust was in God and nothing would remove that trust. Job did not have a government to pass trillion dollar spending bills to bail him out; Job relied on God and His mercy, not on government and her hand outs.

The bible has lessons for us to still learn, take some time this lent and read the book of Job; rediscover the power of God in the lives of is people. Rediscover the power of responsibility and see the mercy of God working in your life.

Paul

 

How do you know?

Today as I was driving in to work I was listening to one of the CD’s I have concerning the Catholic Faith. This particular CD was on the Eucharist and the true presence of Jesus in. The presenter asked the question “Do you believe that Jesus is God?” seems like a simple question really, I mean all Christians would respond “YES”. Really a no brainer if you ask me. Except he went on to ask “Why, Why do you believe Jesus is God?” Now it got a little tougher. Regardless to the response, he had a comeback, something to shoot down your response.

“Because the bible tells me so” …. “The Muslims have a bible, the Koran, and they don’t say Jesus is God”

“Because he preformed miracles” … “People perform miracles today, are they God?”

And so on, there was a comeback to each and every reason that Jesus is God, except one. There is one reason that we know Jesus is God.

“Because I know him”

That’s it, one simple statement of knowing him, think about it, that really is the only reason that is needed, and the only reason the truly proves Jesus is God. It is through knowing him that we understand that he is God.

We can learn all that there is to know about Jesus, we can quote the bible all day long and even know all the rules of the Church, but unless we know Him, unless we have a relationship with him, we will never know that Jesus is God.

I know a few people who can tell me all the facts about Jesus, quote the bible to me and even the Catechism of the Catholic Church or other Church documents, but that in-of-it-self does not mean they know Jesus is God. Intellectually they may, but personally they may not.

In a world that is based on doing more having more and being more, it is hard to take the time to truly know anyone. We text each other, send email’s and chat on line, all fine forms of communication, but really not the same as a face to face. We pencil in 30 minutes for our friends to have coffee, than we are off to some other scheduled event. We allow the Holy Mass to take up one hour on a Sunday, as long as it does not interfere with too many other events in our daily life.

Our children are scheduled to the max, with no real free time; we taxi them from place to place, and event to event with no real time to be with their peers. Than we wonder why we have a generation of youth that cannot integrate in to our society, can’t get along and display anti-social behavior.

We work jobs that demand more time, more effort along with our family life and what social life we may have. So it is no wonder that most of us do not truly know Jesus. When do we have the time? We can’t IM him or text him. And that hour we spend at Mass on Sunday, well we have other things on our minds, we are thinking about all the stuff we could be doing besides sitting here, wasting our time.

To get to know anyone we have to invest in them, we have to take the time to know them, but more importantly we have to want to know them. So many it seems that they feel knowing Jesus should be automatic. Almost life a prize, I attend Church every week, so therefore I should know Him. But like anything in life, knowing Jesus takes work, and lots of it.

Attending Mass is not like a rewards card, you don’t earn points for each “Church event” you attend. Attending Mass should be like the 30 minutes you spent with a friend over coffee. We attend Mass to be with Jesus in a very special way. We attend Mass so we can be with others who also believe as we do and want to be with Jesus. But more importantly we attend Mass so that we may truly receive Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist that we will truly know Jesus is God; it is in the Eucharist that we commune with God on a personal level like no other. But we must believe this, we must want it and we must truly love.

The Catholic Church is blessed to have the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, no other Church can lay claim to this, we, as Catholics, have the true Body, Blood and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ with us, here on earth, and all we have to do is believe. WOW, let me state that one more time,  , we, as Catholics, have the true Body, Blood and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ with us, here on earth, and all we have to do is believe. Think about that for a few minutes.

You want to truly get to know Jesus; you want to truly know that Jesus is God, than take some time to spend with Him. Lent is here, we are called to prayer, fasting and alms giving. Lent is a time of reflection and a deep conversion of our heart. Lent calls us back to Him who died for us, Lent is a time to renew our faith and to reclaimed it as our own. This Lent pencil in some time with Jesus, spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, have a cup of tea with Jesus in deep prayer or attend daily mass if you can.

We seem to find time for ballgames and our favorite TV shows, surly we can find time to get to know our Lord Jesus Christ. Any moment you can spend with Jesus is a moment with God, a moment with love itself.  

Jesus is God, and I only know this because I know Him, I spend time with Him and allow Him to spend time with me. Jesus is God…

Paul

 

From the Ash

Today Catholics all around the world are being reminded that our earthly bodies came from the dust of the earth and will return to the dust. Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. We, as Catholics will get the ash sign of the cross upon our foreheads, abstain from meat and fast. It is a day to be remained that we are truly nothing without our Lord. Our bodies here on earth are empty shells until the Lord God breathed into us true life.

Today is a reminder that we are mortals, that one day we will die and leave this place, we will return to the earth from which we were created. We are reminded, as Bob Dillon sang, that one day we will be blowing in the wind.

All very somber if you think about it, and Ash Wednesday would be somber if we left it at that, but than we would be missing the point. Yes we are to remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return, but we are also to remember that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Not a physical image but a spiritual one.

All of us, regardless of our faith or lack of it, have been given the gift of a soul, our spiritual likeness to God. This Soul does not die, nor does it blow in the wind. This soul will live on for all eternity, and will one day along with our glorified bodies live in the presence of God.

Ash Wednesday is the start of our journey towards Easter. It is the first day of our long walk to Calvary, during the forty days of Lent we are asked to carry our cross to bear our souls and to offer it up to our Lord Jesus the Christ.

Lent affords the opportunity to exercise our souls and to remind ourselves that the flesh is of no avail, that it is the flesh that is fallen, and it is the soul that lifts. Our first parents Sercombe to the desire of the flesh, they allowed the human condition to prevail. Christ Jesus offered up the flesh so that the soul of all humanity may prevail.

Today I am reminded that I am Ash, today I become the human sacrifice for our Lord in all the little deeds I perform. The earthly acts of obedience and the forsaking of the flesh, today I deprive the flesh to nourish the soul.

We are of fallen nature, we are week and discontent, we disobedient to the master and shallow in our attempts. But today offers us the opportunity to repent to start anew, today we are given the graces of sacrifice and of prayer, today we will make amends in the imperfect act of Lent. Today we are called to sacrifice, to offer ourselves up as the sacrificial lamb, blemished and broken as it is.

Today I am reminded that I am nothing but an empty shell of flesh without the Lord Jesus, today I understand just a little more, that I am nothing and from nothing I was created. Today I come closer to the truth that God created me out of love and the little sacrifices I make are nearly ripples on the ocean of time. But to God they are waves of love washing away the sins of humanity.

 

Lent is a time of renewal, a time to look deeply in to your soul and a time to change and grow. Allow this Lent to transform you… Here is wishing you all a very Happy Lent!

Paul  

 

Lent and her three children

How do we know that we are living a life that Christ wants us to live? This has to be a burning for most if not all Christians. If our life goal is to please God to be Christ like, than what is our gauge, how do we know we are achieving what we set out to achieve?

Over the years I have come back to this question:

 “How do I know that what I am doing is pleasing God?”

“How do I know that this is the path the Lord wants me to walk?”

“How do I know I am being the man I am called to be?”

I wish I could tell you that I know the answers to all the questions, but in truth I do not, I still have the questions, but no answers. But I feel that they are still questions that need to be examined. We must, from time to time, stop and take stock in our faith.

Lent offers us such a time, Lent is a time to stop and take stock in your faith. The Church in her wisdom gives us 40 days to reflect and to deepen our faith. We are offered a time to reflect deeply on the inner faith we have, to look at our souls and to nourish it with Prayer, Fasting and Alms giving. But how does a deeper prayer live, fasting and alums giving help to answer the questions raised above?

As Christians we believe that we must suffer” here on earth that we must “Carry our Cross”. Lent offers us a time to remember that command and to live it with a deeper understanding or should I say to live it in a deeper understanding.

God in His wisdom knows that we are human and of fallen nature, that we will take the easy road when we can, so Lent offers us a yearly reminder that the life of a Christian is not an easy one, that we are called to many task that will force us outside of our box, stretching our comfort zone to the maximum and creating in us a new being. We are to be “reborn” in to our faith, we are called to die daily on the cross and to be resurrected daily in the Lord. The path of a Christian is not an easy path, it is one filled with trials that will test your resolve until you are forever in His glory. The life of a Christian is not the “easy” life; in fact some may argue that it is not even the “good” life, according to the world’s view of a good life.  But it is the life that we choose to walk.

Lent and her three children, Prayer, Fasting and Alms Giving are gifts from God, to help us remain on the path of glory. Each of the children of Lent offers us a gift from God but they also offer us a key to the answers we seek.

Payer:

Prayer is conversing with God, to have an open discussion with your Father. Lent offers us a time to deepen that prayer life, to reestablish that connection that may have been lost over the past year. The gift of prayer is the key to understanding the will of God. It is through prayer that we gain wisdom from the Holy Spirit and obtain a oneness that is only possible with a father and his child.

Fasting:

Fasting is sharing in the Lords suffering it allows us, in a small way, to be with the Lord in the desert for 40 days, to hang on the Cross with Him and to feel the Whip of hatred on our own skin. We are not out for the pain f it, but rather we are in it for the love of it. We suffer not for suffering sake but rather for the sake of those who are suffering. Jesus offered up His suffering for our sins, we too are called to offer up our sufferings for the world. The gift of Fasting is the key to compassion. It is through fasting that we gain the compassion of our Lord, through our fasting, our simple sufferings here on earth we, in our small way, take part in the passion of our Lord.

Alms Giving:

Alms Giving grants the ability to heal the sick and care for the poor, alms giving is our way of sharing in the miracles of the Lord. Through our gifts we are able to cure the broken hearted and free the prisoners. Alms Giving is not just the gift of money, but rather it is the gift of self to be in service of others. Jesus’ greatest miracles were not walking on water or raising the dead, His greatest miracles were caring for the forgotten. When we give Alms we are giving of ourselves, we are taking part in the miracle of love. Jesus gave freely of himself to others; he comforted the lonely and had compassion for the sick. He talked to the social outcast and broke bread with the sinners. His Alms was himself. We are called to be as Jesus, the gift of Alums Giving is the key of love. It is through Alums Giving that we are united in the works of our Lord, we through our giving, take part in the raising of the dead and the healing of the sick. By our giving we feed the multitudes and love the loveless.

Lent offers us an opportunity to examine our Christ-likeness, the acts of Prayer, Fasting and Alms Giving affords us the opportunity to share in the wondrous works of our Lord.

Paul

 

Lent Check list

Over the past few weeks I have been really diving in to listening to CD’s and reading books to help me deepen my spirituality. It is all in preparation to Lent, I really want to make this Lent a deeper lent than I have ever had. So I purchased some CD’s on the Catholic faith and a few books to help me along.

The CD’s are in my car, and I listen to them where ever I drive. I am finding it very interesting and stimulating to my mind and soul. We never seem to know enough about our own faith, or at least I don’t. So I truly enjoy the process of learning more about my faith. Each CD is on a very specific topic of the Catholic Church, they are intended to be apologetic talks that you listen to and give to others that wish to learn more about the Catholic Faith, but I have a feeling I will be listening to them a few more times before I hand them off to anyone. Each one is filled with so many facts and truths that, like a good movie or book, you need to reprocess the information over and over again until you get it all. I have gone through about 15 CD’s so far, and have 15 or so to still listen to, than I will start all over again, mixing up the order a bit.

It’s kind of funny how the order worked out, call it God’s hand, but it seems that I have listen to them in a very specific order, they seem to feed off of each other, and the lessons learned in the previous CD is expanded upon in the next, very cool if you ask me.

As for the books, well some I started a year or two ago (If you don’t know me, you would not

understand this, but I read 5 or so books at one time, so I end up starting books that will take me a year or more to read. I will pick them up when the spirit wills it) and some books I just purchased for Lent. One of the books I purchased for Lent is “Peace of Soul” by Fulton J. Sheen. I have spoken of him in this blog, so you know how much I respect him and consider him to be a saint.

 

This Book, “Peace of Soul” is a play on the words “Peace of Mind”. To tell you the truth I went to the book store looking for a book I could read during Lent, and this was the only title that caught my eye. All the other books I saw where not of particular interest or where not Catholic in faith. Normally I would not concern myself if the author was Catholic or not, I have read many great books on deepening your faith from authors who were not Catholic. But I made a conscious decision to purchase a Catholic book. For anyone who has ever gone to a secular book store, finding a Catholic book is hard, finding a good Catholic book is almost impossible. It is easy to find Catholic bashing books, but not so easy to find uplifting Catholic books. So finding this one Fulton Sheen book was an act of God, I am convinced of that. The Holy Spirit led me to it, and now I am reading it.

But back to the topic at hand, I purchased this book to help me deepen my faith, I have never heard of it and I have never read any of Fulton Sheens writings before. But I knew of him, and I trusted his work. This book is turning out to be the exact book I needed at this time in my life. It is a book about modern man, and how we have gone away from God and turned to science. How we look to psychiatrist to heal our mind, but forget that the soul is what needs heeling. How we look to the outside world for help, and not to the inside for God. The book is a treasure of the Church that should be given to all to read. It may have been written in the 50’s, but it has as much if not more relevance now than it did then.

Fulton Sheen was a man of great insight, and he has the ability to make simple the complex, and he does so in this book. Taking the complex world and all her issues that man has to struggle with and turns them in to a simple solution. I recommend each and every one of you who read this blog to purchase this book, “Peace of Soul” by Fulton J. Sheen, you will not be disappointed.

Lent is a time to renew and refresh your soul, a time to deepen your faith and become closer to God. You cannot achieve this goal if you do not act upon it. Lent is not a passive thing, it is a very active time, and we are called by the Church, by God himself, to participate in Lent. We are to give alums to the poor, fast and prayer. Each of them requires our active participation.

Lent is not a check list of activities that is not becoming active; to check off alums giving because you sent in a donation to St. Vincent DePaul does not count. It is more than that, it is truly giving of self, yes money is needed, and yes send it in, but realize that that does not cover it all. You are called to be active in the process.

So how can you be active in alums giving, what more can you do besides donate money, How about time or prayer. Just sending in a check requires nothing of you, but offering one week of prayer to them along with the check, of skipping a meal each day for the poor and your check, that takes effort. And effort is what we are called to give.

As part of my Lent this year, I am focusing on a deeper life with God; I am actively pursuing it through alums giving, prayer and fasting. I will offer it all up to the Lord and my simple offering. An offering of a humble servant not worthy of the graces of God, but one that is willing to ask for the graces anyway.

This Wednesday, February 25 is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. I pray that each of you have a deep and meaningful Lent and that it is not just 40 days of checking off the tasks to do list.

Paul

 

Resurrection of yourself

Over the past two weeks I have been listening to talks on CD’s on my ride in to work. I try to listen to Catholic radio on my ride, but the signal is so week in the morning that all I get is static mixed in with talk, so it’s kind of hard. So I started to listen to CD’s.

In truth it has been a very good experience, I am learning more about my faith daily, and that can’t be a bad thing. With Lent coming up, I have made a short list of what I plan of doing during this Lenten session. I would like to share this list with you, and who knows I may even be inspired to write about my experience, but if you’re lucky I won’t.

 

 

This Lent:

1.       Read/Learn more about my faith

2.       Attend the Stations of the Cross at my local Parish

3.       Go to confession

4.       Donate more to Boys Town

5.       Clean out my house, and donate all I do not need to St. Vincent DePaul

6.       Clean out my life and offer up all that I do not need to God

7.       Work out (I am just way to fat)

8.       Eat healthier (I love junk foods, and that’s why I’m way to fat)

That’s my short list, and with the Grace of God, I will be able to stick to it all.

Lent offers us all a time to examine our lives, a time to reflect on ourselves and God. (See my blog on reflection at www.youcanbenew.wordpress.com) Lent leads up to the holiest of holy days, Easter, the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus the Christ, It is a glorious day, a day of great joy, and lent, the 40 days (not including Sundays, Sundays are a free pass) leading up to Easter. Lent is our time to prepare to the celebration of the resurrection. Our “acts” during Lent, Prayer, Fasting and Alums Giving are meant to help us prepare for Easter. We should use them not a tick marks on our Lent list, but rather as guide lines on how we should live out our life, daily.

We should always pray, daily, not just during Lent, but we can use Lent as a time to help us deepen our prayer life. Use the time to attend special prayer opportunities at your parish, use the time to read spiritual books or to listen to talks about our faith.

Fridays is fish day during Lent, but in truth it is so much more than that. Fasting is not just about giving up something, it about offering up. We offer up our hunger or wants to Jesus, we go without, so we can suffer along with Jesus. This is not just a Lent thing; we should always deny ourselves for the glory of God.

Alums for the poor, we know that we should give money and our used items to the poor, and we do, every Christmas time donations are up, and we all feel good about ourselves for doing our part. And that would be great, if we only had poor at Christmas time. We are called to be the light of Christ in this world, we are called to shine. We need to care for the poor daily, through prayer, fasting and Giving; Giving our time, money and talents.

Lent, a time to examine ourselves, a time to look deep within, use the 40 days to learn more, do more and give more. But don’t stop at the end of the 40, continue it on, allow this lent to lead you in to a resurrection of yourself.

Paul

 

Reflect

As a Catholic I am getting ready to start Lent, a time of reflection and fasting. Lent offers us chance to look back over our life and reflect on what we have done and what we have become. Lent also offers us the opportunity to look forward to reflect on what we want to do and become. Lent is a time of reflection, a time to make new, to be reborn. Lent leads up to Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, It is a time for Catholics to prepare for a new life. As I think about lent, I thought that in truth all of us, Catholic or not, Christian or not, we all can us a little lent in our life. So I thought I would use this blog space to talk about the power of reflection, both back and forward.

Reflection, like seeing an image in a mirror, we have the opportunity to view ourselves as we are, and how we want to be. A little like playing dress up in front of the mirror, like you did when you were a kid, we all did. Put on mom or dads close, look in the mirror and pretend to be the parent, the one in charge. Well reflection can be sort of like that, it allows us to try on new selves, and it allows us to look at past selves.

As I stated above, the Catholic Church sets aside 40 days every year for us to do just that, to reflect. What wisdom the Church had in doing so. And what wisdom we all have gained from it. Weather we do this personal secular lent now or when the Church does it matters little, what matters is that we do it. We set the time aside and we reflect, we take stock in who we where, who we are and who we want to be. We try on new selves, see how they fit, mix and match old with new and reflect on what we see.

This process is used everywhere, from the Church to major corporations to small family run operations. Families do it as well as individuals. This is not a new concept, but one that I feel needs to be restated every now and then. If you are a reader of my blogs you will know that I often return to the idea of reflection. I often call it by different names, but the idea is the same. Take time to look at yourself, take time to learn from your past to create your future. If you are a Christian, use the time of Lent to reflect not only on God, but also on yourself, your relationship with others and God. If you are a non-Christian, set aside some time to reflect, follow the Christian calendar and start on February 25 and continue until Easter Sunday, or set your own dates. But do it, allow yourself the opportunity to reflect, to look back and forward.

Journal about it, keep a record, start a blog, track you progress. It is important that we know we are moving, that our efforts are not stagnate. Lent, a time to prepare for a rebirth, yours and Christ, and a time to reflect on what was and what will be.

Paul

 

I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!

“I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

“I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

“I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

For anyone who has seen the live action movie “Peter Pan” you may remember this scene, Tinker Bell had drank Peters “medicine” that Caption Hook has poisoned, and she has died. The back story is very important her, Peter had gotten mad at tinker over her jealousy of Wendy, and he banished her. So Tink, in her disperse, made an alliance with Hook. It was because of her betrayal to Peter that Wendy and the rest were captured by Hook and his men.

Sounds a lot like life, and a lot like the Gospels.

With lent just around the corner, February 25 in Ash Wednesday, it’s time for us to start thinking about what we do believe in. Are we like Tink, have we made alliances what will be our death in the future, are we like Peter, do we banish what we don’t understand out of our lives, or are we like Wendy and the Lost Boys, are we captured in the ship of misunderstandings?

A pivotal point in the movie is Peter’s heartfelt cry of love for his friend Tink, and his willingness to place his own life on the line to save his Lost Boys and Wendy. Peter, on his knees cries out for all to hear, “I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!” he repeats the lament over and over, but to no avail. Tink is still gray and lifeless. But his prayer is heard by Wendy, in her heart and soul she hears Peters cry and joins in. The love of Peter for Wendy and Wendy for Peter transmit his anguish and she is able to pick up on it, carry some of the load for him. As the Lost Boys begin to hear Wendy, they to start to chant “I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

The faith of the one, Peter, turns in to the faith of two, Peter and Wendy. The faith of two, Peter and Wendy, turns in to the faith of many, The Lost Boys and the faith of many turns in to the faith of all who are believers, the children and all who are watching the movie. This short, but pivotal, part of the movie is one of my favorites.

I love the faith it takes to bring Tinker Bell back, the raw emotion that Peter displays for his friend and the simplicity of his prayer, “I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

We can learn a lot from that movie, Peter Pan is movie for all ages and if you look there are life lessons and lessons of faith everywhere.

With Lent just around the corner, maybe this is a good time to pick up a copy of Peter Pan and you too can pray Peters little pray of deep heartfelt faith, and you too can say  “I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

Or better yet “I do believe in Jesus, I do! I DO!” and who knows, maybe others will hear your simple little prayer and join in with you.

Peter saves his friends, and at the same time he learns a little bit more about himself, he grows up, ever so slightly. His walk is a long walk, Peter has the faith of a child and is scared to lose it, yet everyone around him, Wendy and the Lost Boys, all seem to want what Peter is scared of, they all want to grow up. Peter, in his love for them, allows them to leave him, allows them to grow up. In many ways, it is Peter who grows up the most, yet retains his child like simplicity. In many ways we all should have just a little bit of Peter in us. Peter does not believe in fairies because he is told to, or because of facts, Peter believes in Fairies because… And sometimes that is the best reason to believe…

 “I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

“I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

“I do believe in fairies, I do! I DO!”

Paul