Lent

So, I don't know much about the temperaments , but I do know that I am at least in part very melancholic. I mean, I wrote a graduate thesis on purgative suffering and its relation to hope, for goodness' sake. When given the choice, I always choose to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. And I really love Lent. I am drawn to think of our Lord on the Cross. Not sad, not emo, just a thinker, I guess.

Yesterday I went to my parish's Stations of the Cross, and I just simply fell in love all over again with this tradition. I love the Stabat Mater, I love the genuflecting, I love the meditation on redemption found throughout the Scriptures and how they are perfected in Christ. So, here are some things I'm using to help me with my meditation. Perhaps they will be of help to you, too!

1. A Holy Hour. If you can get to Him, go!

2. Bach's Passion of St. Matthew. This just gets me right in the zone.

3. Danielle Rose's Mysteries CD: especially the reflection on the Agony in the Garden.

4. Praying the Seven Sorrows Rosary with Immaculee Ilibagiza.

Prayers for a deepened encounter with the crucified Christ!

Remember Us in Your Mercy

Today on Good Friday, we will be quiet with the Church in remembering the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus.

However, we wanted to offer our readers another chance to pray with us. Today we begin the Divine Mercy Novena. Please join us in praying that the Lord would continue to extend His mercy to us in our deepest wounds -- both visible and invisible. Be assured of our prayers for you.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Ignatian Retreat Blog

Several Jesuits (David Paternostro, S.J., John Brown, S.J., Deacon Kevin Dyer, S.J., and Fr. Chris Collins, S.J.) have started a lenten Ignatian Retreat Blog with daily meditations from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola:

The ultimate goal of this blog is to help anyone who reads it to grow in their love for God our Lord, and to better discern His will in their daily lives. We would encourage you to let that goal of growing in the love of God be the one measure you use to determine how much or how little you make use of the materials provided here, and how much or how little time you spend in prayer. Let all things be Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam- for the greater glory of God!

They have guidelines on "Total praying", and Examining your conscience, as well as the daily meditations. They're only on day nine, so there's time to catch up.

HT: AmericanPapist

Lent Fail

I fail at lent.

It's only been nine days and I've already messed up my resolutions about 50 times. Including missing mass on both wednesday and thursday. SO, to cheer myself up a bit--and refocus on the season at hand--here's a beautiful meditation sung by Anonymous 4



It is, I think, a responsory dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Probably, technically, it belongs in the Christmas season, but it's haunting harmonies a quiet pace calm the heart and call us all to attention.

Life and Lent

I've got to tell you, this year, the pro-life cause has struck me very powerfully. Don't get me wrong, I have always been pro-life. I defied my dad's wishes when I was in 7th grade and went to a pro-life rally at the state senate (he didn't like the fact of the rally...he's pro-life too, of course). But this year, when I think about abortion, I just want to weep. And do something.

Tuesday was the start of the 2nd Annual 40 Days for Life Lenten campaign here in Washington. Despite the bitter cold (and Mardi Gras conflicts), I went to the rally. There were only about 15 of us there--a rather poor showing--but we talked, and then sang hymns, and walked towards Planned Parenthood, singing "Amazing Grace." Standing in front of the Abortion Clinic, we prayed the litany to Jesus in the Womb of Mary, the prayer for the reparation of Abortion, and the prayer for the closing of an abortuary.

The Planned Parenthood in Washington is on 16th street--a main thoroughfare with over 60 churches in its 75 blocks within the District. Close to K Street, and other business districts, it has a steady stream of traffic--people coming to and from work. Our witness is not only for the women who visit Planned Parenthood--it is for all those people who walk by us. It is a witness to the world that we will not allow this tragedy to continue.

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As we were marching towards PP, two 20-something guys walked past us and started cheering "YAY! We Love Abortion!" Besides the idiocy of that kind of remark (very few people, even those who regularly procure abortions, "love" it), I was so sad for their sakes, and angry for the women they know. Many women only have abortions because they are pressured into it by their boyfriends or family. These young men, who let us hope have never actually pressured their girlfriends in any way, represent a dangerous and oppressive view towards women. And yet it is the common view.

Similarly, Robert McCartney of the Washington Post wrote about what he saw at the March For Life last month in his weekly column for the Washington Post:

I went to the March for Life rally Friday on the Mall expecting to write about its irrelevance. Isn't it quaint, I thought, that these abortion protesters show up each year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, even though the decision still stands after 37 years. ...How wrong I was. The antiabortion movement feels it's gaining strength, even if it's not yet ready to predict ultimate triumph, and Roe supporters (including me) are justifiably nervous.

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Another Pro-life link that I found very powerful:


This was made by a team in Atlanta. HT: Danielle Bean

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All these moments and thoughts and ramblings are leading me to this point: We MUST take on the fight to save the lives of these children. Innocent life lost is always a tragedy, but has the world ever seen a massacre of these numbers--and they have no voice to protest.

We also must not loose hope. Though the tragedy continues every day, those souls are also loved by God. What's more: the victory is already won--Christ has already taken on all this pain, sinfulness and suffering, and redeemed it through his cross.

Won't you join us in this fight? With over 160 cities in the US participating, I hope you might be able to join us in this campaign. If you can't, then please: Pray with us. Prayers are needed most of all! And lent--the time we meditate on the ravages of sin and the power of grace--is the perfect time to focus out efforts and work for an end to Abortion.

Into the Silent Land

I think Lent is a time given to us to enter "into the silent land." This is a time when we take a good, hard look at ourselves and at Christ in deep discernment. "Who are You?" we ask the Lord. "And who am I?

I think my Lenten "theme" this year will be silence. Everything I fast from, everything I build into my day, everything I read, and the way that I pray will be molded around this idea that we need silence. One book that I recommend to everyone, which bears the title of this post, was written by a graduate professor of mine and a extraordinary homilist. He leads the Catholic Christian deeper into the practice of contemplation in an accessible way.

I used to be diligent about my practice of contemplative prayer: twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the afternoon. And then life consumed me, and it has been years since I have really been regularly silent with the Lord. But again, the Church provides us with the seasons to start over and to continually prepare ourselves for our encounter with Christ.

I said to my soul, be will, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not yet ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be light, and the stillness the dancing.

T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

The Prayer of the Lord

I know I've posted on this before, but I have been praying this prayer of Christ before His Passion all Lent. It's brought joy to my heart, and I hope it will bring joy to yours too. So here's the entirety of chapter 17 of the Gospel of St. John.

1 These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5 And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee.

6 I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known, that all things which thou hast given me, are from thee: 8 Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine: 10 And all my things are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11 And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture may be fulfilled. 13 And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil.

16 They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20 And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me;

21 That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. 24 Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee: and these have known that thou hast sent me.

26 And I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

Image taken from here.

The Four Quartets - Holy Week

I know it is not yet Good Friday, but I can't help but share a part of my favorite poem, T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets.  Each read is a spiritual exercise for me, and this Friday I will have these words on my heart: 

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part; 

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

The sharp compassion of the healer's art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart. 

Our only health is the disease 

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But to remind of our, and Adam's curse, 

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse. 

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire, 

Wherein, if we do well, we shall

Die of the absolute paternal care

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere. 

The chill ascends from feet to knees, 

The fever sings in mental wires.

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars. 

The dripping blood our only drink, 

The bloody flesh our only food: 

In spite of which we like to think 

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood - 

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good. 

A Lenten Tool

Just thought I'd share this site with you all. The Vatican is offering a Lenten site where you can find prayers, hymns, calendars and more. I am listening to some of the hymns right now. Gorgeous!

On the Virtue of Temperance

I've been on a 'virtue' kick lately -- probably as a result of immersing myself in the ancient political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle these past few months. I thought I'd meditate on the virtue of temperance today, especially since we all had to practice it on Ash Wednesday as we observed the fast (and I don't know about you all, but I certainly struggle with it!!) After all, temperance is the moral virtue that keeps our desire for the bodily goods in check. How easy it is to indulge in good things, to rejoice in the goodness of the created world that God has given to us.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, we naturally desire those things that are good for us and seem good to us. So why do we need temperance? Well, I'd like to consider this question by using a meditation on Christ's temptation in the desert by Father Thomas Rosica.

As you know, before Christ began his public ministry, he was tempted by Satan in the desert -- tempted to change stones into bread to satisfy his hunger, tempted to worship the evil one in exchange for power, and tempted to prove the Father's love for Him by casting Himself off the side of a mountain to see if God will send His angels to save Him. Each one of these temptations Christ overcomes through His faithfulness. So, what does this have to do with temperance??

Well, temperance is that moral virtue which gets us to curb our appetites. Now that's easy, we curb our appetites for food, drink, sex, etc. But consider the ways in which our appetites get in the way of our spiritual life. Consider how our spiritual lives can suffer if we are too busy inundating our lives with material things. Father Rosica writes:

"When and how do I find moments of contemplation in the midst of a busy life? How have I lived in the midst of my own deserts? Have I been courageous and persistent in fighting with the demons? How have I resisted transforming my own deserts into places of abundant life? "

Isn't that part of the purpose of temperance? That is, to turn those desert moments of our lives into an opportunity for grace, to allow God to give us His life more abundantly? Temperance disciplines us to put material goods in their proper place. And isn't so easy for women to get hung up on material goods? We love to decorate, shop, look fabulous, and give our surroundings that 'woman's touch.' And that's what I love about being a woman, but it so easily can dominate our lives and turn us away from God. Consider what Father Rosica says about the first temptation of Christ:

In the first temptation in the desert, Jesus responds to the evil one, not by denying human dependence on sustenance (food), but rather by putting human life and the human journey in perspective. Those who follow Jesus cannot become dependent on the things of this world. When we are so dependent on material things, and not on God, we give in to temptation and sin.

Temperance teaches us not to be dependent on material things and trains our minds and hearts to turn to God. Through it we realize as Father Rosica says, "that we must have some spiritual space in our lives where we can strip away the false things that cling to us and breathe new life into our dreams and begin again." That's what practicing temperance is all about, and that's what Lent allows us to do. Temperance prepares us to depend on God for our all, even in those moments we are tempted to despair. For in the midst of the desert, Father Rosica writes, we can "open our hearts to Him and allow Him to make our own deserts bloom."

(not) Angry

Today I nearly broke down and quit my job. My boss put me in the middle of a terrible situation, had no apologies for it, and it was all his fault in the first place. Then, when we were done talking about it, he said "how are you?"--I nearly exploded. Instead, I ended the conversation as quickly as possible, and hung up.

As soon as I hung up, I shouted the most vulgar word I knew, and then looked up and realized I was in front of a Church.

Edith's post about reserving judgement is so important and inspiring. For my part, in dealing with this terrible job, I have been so caught up in anger and bitterness. Instead of seeing it as a chance to grow in grace, I've indulged in my "justified" anger. It's true, I'm getting better at executing the job, and I'm always offering it up, which helps some, but I am not getting better at bearing with it.

My prayer for lent is that I find a new job. My goal in lent is to let Christ calm that anger, at least a little bit.

What Are You Giving Up for Lent??

That's the question we were always asked by our peers in our Catholic grade school growing up. But what does it mean to deny ourselves something for Lent? I do the same types of things -- give up chocolate (I am a legitimate chocoholic), give up sweets, abstain from all those good foods that I love, etc. And fasting from good food is certainly something that we should do, but sometimes crucifying the flesh does not always benefit spiritually if we don't have the right orientation. So this year, I've decided to do something more for the Lord. I am crucifying my spirit and letting Christ root out those little vices I have within me.

Recently, I've been struggling with being judgmental toward others. Little thoughts about people, just things that are kind of mean. It's so easy to judge, to think less of a person to make yourself feel better about your own vices. But I just watched the Youtube clip of Danielle Rose that Julian just posted below. Wow!! What an inspirational woman!!! What a tremendous understanding of the Eucharist and the meaning of God's sacrifice! Christ did not die so I could sit here and justify my own faults by thinking poorly of others. He died and left us the Eucharist -- Himself -- so I could be united to all souls in HIM, so that He could give me new life and make me a new creation. And if He does it for me, He does it for all. How we could hold any bitterness toward each other knowing what Christ does for us?

This Lent, let's give up resentment toward each other. Let us work to right our wrongs and let Christ enter His light into our life in a more powerful, lasting way. Let us remember how to love again, in the most full sense of the meaning of love. I resolve to meditate on the meaning of the Holy Cross and to let the most beautiful words of the Prophet Isaiah (43:25) penetrate my soul: "I am, I am he that blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."