Spy Wednesdays from the past

I've written many posts on Spy Wednesday over the years. Here are a few. Today I'll be meditating on the betrayals in my own life. My sins were among those that caused Jesus's bloody sweat. Let me put sorrow for my sins in the cup of consolation the angel brought to Him in the garden. 

 Did Jesus Love Judas?

Why it's called Spy Wednesday

How does the evil one mess with you?

Betrayal

Living Lent All Year!

I experienced a grief moment this morning. That's not uncommon during my prayer and meditation time. When you're almost 79 you've had plenty of sorrows over the years: deaths, estrangements, betrayals, unkindness, accusations. They turn into the muck that makes up the slough of despond. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for me.

Five R's for Lent -- Remember, Reflect, Repent, Return, Rejoice

Several years ago I did a post on five R words that I kept coming across in my spiritual reading. Sometimes things that repeat become like a hymn that buries itself in your soul like a precious memory. That's the case with these R words for me. So I'm repeating the post with some changes and will be watching for these words every day when I pray the Mass.

The first is remember and we hear it from the very first day of Lent in the Ash Wednesday admonition. "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." A sobering thought upon which we do well to reflect again and again. We need to remember everything God has done for us from the beginning of creation. We also need to remember how we have sinned against him which gives us the next words -- reflect and repent.  

If You Really Want a Holy Lent, Walk it with Mary!

On the first and third Sunday's of the month we have catechism after Mass. It's short, only about twenty minutes, but what a grace! There is always a message that touches the heart and brings clarity to the "fog of the moment"* in which we live. 

Several Sundays ago Fr. Albert, a retired Dominican in residence at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, delivered the teaching and focused on discouragement and Mary's role in protecting us based on the teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Knight of the Immaculata.

Lent is about identifying our disorders and choosing penances that attack them.

This guide will help us make really valuable choices during Lent that bring us closer to Christ by the time we reach Easter. I've listened to several times and it's already helped me identify a disordered thing in my life that needs attention. Father discusses penance, mortification, and making concrete resolutions "to clean things up in the future." Those are the luggage we need to take on our Lenten journey.

"What we're after during Lent is to remove obstacles to God's grace -- to remove those obstacles from our souls and our lives."

Want the journey to Easter to be fruitful? This is a good starting point? May God pour out His grace on us that we may reach our goal and be able to say, "That was a really fruitful Lent. Thank you, Lord. Help me continue to grow closer to You during the Easter season of celebration." 

Repairing the Ruins; the Challenge of Life!

When I visited Ireland about 35 years ago, I remember seeing ruin after ruin. Ruined round towers, ruins of ancient monasteries, castles, and abbeys. Everywhere there were reminders of ancient Ireland and her long connection to the Catholic faith. Those ruins are a metaphor, I think, for what's happening in that poor country today. The faith is in ruins for many Catholics whose relationship with the Church is fractured and broken.

Septuagesima Sunday Means the Final Goodbye to Christmas and Turns Our Faces To Lent

Yesterday was Septuagesima Sunday when we fully turn our faces from the celebration of Christmas to the Suffering of Lent. Over the weekend I finally took down the creche and the Christmas tree -- reluctantly. With all the frigid weather, the lights spread a cheery glow in our dining room at every meal spreading warmth, if not to the body to the soul. 

Have You Been Praying the Daily Rosary This Lent?

Read the article below and consider the power of praying the rosary in union with Mary and the Holy Trinity and the angels and saints. Outside of the Mass there is no more effective prayer than the devotion of the Holy Rosary. If you aren't praying the daily rosary why not start this minute to enrich these last days of Lent? 

If you already pray the rosary, consider adding another set or at least another decade. What a blessing to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries every day contemplating the great love of Jesus who gave Himself up FOR YOU, not humanity in general, but FOR YOU -- personally. If you can't say an entire five-decade rosary, how about choosing one decade. It won't take you five minutes and you will be giving ten blows to the devil's head and ten kisses to a loving mother! Lent calls for us to focus on prayer, sacrifice, and almsgiving. Increasing your recitation of the rosary is a prayer that will bless these last days of Lent and the soon-to-begin triduum!

And now the article...

Sunday Meditation: To Whom Are You Listening?

Remember the old Disney cartoons showing Pluto with an angel whispering in one ear and a devil in the other. That's not too far off. Our guardian angel is always with us trying to give us good advice. But do we listen? Or are we so enamored by the noise of the world that we can't hear his voice, especially when the devil is booming in our other ear.

But it's not only our guardian angel who's trying to communicate with us. Good and holy shepherds also compete with the world, the flesh, and the devil for our attention. C.S. Lewis offered a masterful description of the devil's tactics in his Screwtape Letters. It's wise to know the enemy and how he works on you. One of his most powerful weapons is discouragement. You know, that little nagging maggot that runs an endless loop of negative messages:

A Lenten Reflection on that Predominant Fault You Haven't Conquered Yet

Sloth from The Seven Deadly Sins by Hieronymus Bosch

Have you ever considered the question, "What is my predominant sin/fault and how can I subdue it?" There are seven deadly sins and most of us are tempted more strongly by some vices than others. And, of course, at different seasons of life, some hold more sway. 

Random Thoughts on a Lenten Friday

• 

  Checked the bees this week. Hard at work!

  Two of my grandsons are coming today to help do Camp Kreitzer cleanup. The yard is littered with hundreds of pine cones and sticks, even thick branches that winter winds have dislodged from our numerous pine trees. And oh-my-goodness the pine needles! I rake them up occasionally and put heaps of them in the chicken yard and the coop and on the garden. It cuts down on the cost of pine chips for the coop and mulch for the garden. But no matter how much yard work I do, it always seems like drop in the bucket...or in the pool...or in the ocean. To put a spiritual outlook on it, working on my sins and faults is just like that. No matter how much I try to cultivate the garden of my soul, there is always more to do. And so often it seems I am raking up the same old same old. As I work with the boys today putting yard litter on the fire pit, I will beg God to help me make real progress this Lent placing all my sins and faults on the altar of reconciliation and begging that they be "burned and consumed in the fire of [God's] love." [Imitation of Christ]

Is your Lent off to a good start?

Lent will be five days old tomorrow. Have you made a plan yet? When will you go to Confession? Have you already? Do you plan to go every two weeks as part of your Lenten journey? Or even every week? If you do, you will have one of the requirements for gaining a plenary indulgence every day. Do you know what the requirements are?

Develping a Rule of Life: Rooting Out Defects and Growing in Virtue

This is my third post on Fr. Ripperger's video about developing a rule of life. (You can see part one here and part two here.) Making a rule of life is all about establishing a regimen of discipline that can help in all areas of life. Fr. Ripperger talks about taking a systematic approach to rooting out our defects. He echoes St. Ignatius when he encourages identifying our predominant fault and working on that one thing until we eliminate it or at least make considerable progress. For example, if you have a problem with gluttony, begin by giving up between meal snacks and desserts. Make a good beginning and stick with it. That approach follows Ignatian spirituality which advises working on one defect before moving on to another. With regard to the regimen, the examen is recommended at least twice a day - at midday and bedtime. How did I do this morning? How did I do later? Part of the evening examen is reflecting on the next day and its responsibilities so that you can hit the ground running in the morning. Ignatian spirituality gives the structure for overcoming the sin or fault. 

You've been bought and at what a price!

We all need to be loved and we need to know we're loved! Remember the scene in Les Mis when the gendarmes bring Jean Valjean back to the bishop's house after they find him with the silver he's stolen? Instead of condemning him, the holy bishop dismisses the gendarmes telling Valjean in their presence that he forgot to take the candlesticks which he puts into his knapsack. When the gendarmes leave, the bishop tells the wounded and bitter man, "I've bought your soul for God." That single event transforms Valjean from an angry soul alienated from both God and his fellow man, to an icon of love and charity. 

Crafting a Rule of Life: an Invitation to Grow in Holiness this Lent

I'm asking Mary to be 
my Lenten companion and guide.

I've had a loose rule of life for decades. What do I mean?  Priests have a rule of life that includes saying daily Mass and praying their office. Religious have a "rule" defined by their religious order. But what about the laity? 

Of course we have duties of our state in life, but these change depending on the "season." My duties as a grandmother and great grandmother no longer include the daily care and nurturing of children who live under my roof. I don't have the same obligations of daily rearing and teaching the faith as I did several decades ago. I can certainly be a help and support in the rearing of my grandchildren, but I have few obligations in that department. in fact it would be an abuse for me to try to "take over" and become a source of division between my grandchildren and their parents. 

Thought for the day: What a difference one letter makes!

Reading The Imitation of Christ this morning, I came across this:

My God and my all! What more can I have and what more can I desire than You? O sweet and delightful Word! Sweet to him who loves the Word and not the world, nor those things that are in the world.

As Lent approaches, a meditation from Fr. Tom Collins

WHY JESUS HAD TO UNDERGO THE AGONIES OF HIS PASSION 

One of the most harsh yet central teachings of Christianity is that, in order to save us, Jesus had to undergo all the torments of His Passion and Death (Lk 24:26).

Over the centuries, many have pointed out that, since Jesus is God, He could have redeemed us merely by shedding one drop of His Precious Blood. According to this perspective, it could be asserted that we were actually saved the day of His circumcision, when the first drops of His Blood were shed. But this is not what the Gospel proclaims, but rather Christ crucified.

A similar misunderstanding is that Jesus had to endure His Passion and Death in order to appease the just wrath of His Father, Who was infinitely offended by human sinfulness. This requires viewing God the Father as one, who severely punishes his children when they disobey his commands.  But this is not in harmony with the fact that God the Father so loved the world, even before we repented, that He sent His only Son to live among us and to lay down His life for our salvation. Thus all who believe in Him and are born of water and the Spirit in Baptism are able to share in eternal life with Him (Jn 3:16).  Thus it is that Jesus did not lay down His life for us to appease the Father, but rather to please Him (cf., Matt 3:17, 17:5; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22).

Monday Musings: On David Deleiden, Climate Change, Lent, and Pio Nono

• Good news indeed! I'm thankful for David Deleiden's victory against Planned 
  Parenthood and the state of California. It would not have happened with a Harris/Walz administration. And neither would the pro-life activists be free.  There is much for pro-lifers to cheer about in this brief beginning of Trump's 

California Settles with David Daleiden, Pro-Life Activist who Exposed Planned Parenthood:

What are you reading for Lent?

Prayer and study are an important element of the Catholic life, especially during the season of Lent when we are invited to grow closer to the Lord. Since "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ" obviously it's important to read the Bible. I usually focus on the four passion narratives during Lent and always read Pierre Barbet's meditation from Doctor at Calvary on Good Friday. You can read it free online. 

Thinking about penance and almsgiving! Charity is better than giving up chocolate!

Meet Fifi LaFoo!

This Lent I'm thinking about penance and almsgiving in a new way. After a homily last Sunday about the Lent's focus being about charity not suffering, I've decided to do penance and almsgiving a little differently. I will still be avoiding sweets and between meal snacks (I'm not much of a snacker anyway.), but I will focus on acts of charity. Sometimes those are harder than skipping the glass of wine or the chocolate bar. And giving up your time to serve someone difficult can certainly be a penance.

Almsgiving is taking on a different look too. Mother Teresa used to talk about the loneliness of many souls and their need for love. I've mentioned my sister, Jeanne, before who is in deteriorating health in a nursing home in Frederick, MD. It's a round trip of over three hours to travel from the Valley for a visit. And I confess, I'm not one of those folks who loves to hop in the car and take a drive. Nevertheless, my husband and I have embraced that trip for Lent increasing our visits from about once a month to once a week instead. We pray several rosaries which makes the trip fulfill all three Lenten practices. It's not an easy visit since my sister is depressed and often hostile and angry. It shows in her treatment of both family and staff. And I confess that I have often let Jeanne's mood and ill treatment infect me with resentment and impatience. Mea culpa. That's when I need to remember that feelings need to be under the control of the intellect and the will, something with which I've struggled all my life.