I cannot believe Lent is here! It is Ash Wednesday this week, and I'm just not "ready" for Lent. However I am convincing myself that one will never really be as ready and disposed enough. One would probably do well to open oneself to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. Besides, this is exactly why Holy Mother Church gives us Lent in the first place: to help us master our tendencies and conquer our concupiscences. Thence, we can grow in spirit and be able to dispose our souls in readiness for receiving the new life that Jesus Christ purchased for us at the price of His Blood come Easter!
Therefore at this point, in spite of my initial sentiments, I choose to be filled with... HOPE!
GREAT GUIDEPOSTS FOR LENT
Lent is the time when we repent. "Repent" does not mean "to turn one's life around:" that is conversion. "Repent" in Latin means "to rethink." To see the world and our lives as Jesus: that is the beginning of repentance. -- Fr Daniel Homan
"And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" - Luke 9:23
Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: "If you chew up and consume one another be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves." -- St John Chrysostom
We ought to fast, and to abstain from all vice, and from all that will lead us into sin, as well as from extravagance and superfluity. We should often visit the churches, and venerate and reverence all ecclesiastics on account of their office, and because they distribute the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ, which they offer in sacrifice, receive themselves, and administer to others. And let everyone know and hold for certain that we cannot be saved except through the sacred Words and the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which priests preach, announce, and distribute, and of which they are the sole ministers. -- St. Francis of Assisi
There was once a solitary who had built himself a royal palace in the trunk of an oak-tree; he had placed thorns inside of it, and he had fastened three stones over his head, so that when he raised himself or turned over he might feel the stones or the thorns. And we, we think of nothing but finding good beds, that we may sleep at our ease. -- St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
