Opening Prayer Series: Second Sunday of Lent Yr C

OPENING PRAYER SERIES. 

The Opening Prayer of the Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent reads as follows:

THE MASS.

OPENING PRAYER 

Let us pray

(for the grace to respond to the Word of God)

God our Father,

help us to hear Your Son.

Enlighten us with your word,

that we may find the way to your glory.

REFLECTION QUESTION.

In making this prayer tangible for my life during this week, the following reflection questions emerged:

1.     What does responding to the Word of God mean to me personally?

2.     What do I desire to hear Jesus say to me this week?

3.     What are the obstacles/limitations/sins that hinder my effort to respond to the Word of God?

4.     How might I work on one of these obstacles this week?

5.     What areas in my life need to be enlightened by the Word of God?

6.     What steps will I take this week to help this enlightenment to occur?

7.     How will I reflect it in my life during Lent? Does my Lenten observance support this goal?

8.     What is God's way to finding His glory? Am I following this way?

GOSPEL REFLECTION'

 On the Second Sunday of Lent, the Church highlights the hope of future glory for us as pilgrims.  The transfiguration of Christ allowed the chosen disciples- those closest to Him to experience Christ in His glory.  We, like Peter, need to respond 'Master it is wonderful for us to be here'. When we go into the cloud of our life and we feel afraid, let us listen for our Father's voice saying to us personally ' This is my Son, the Chosen One, Listen to Him'.

As we journey the second week of Lent, may the Lord be our light and our salvation.

Sundays and fasting in Lent?

Sundays and fasting in Lent?

Do we fast on the Sundays in Lent?  

.

There is no history of fasting on the Sundays of Lent. The current discipline of the Church is to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The voluntary sacrifice of a personal pleasure is not the same as the ecclesial discipline of fasting on prescribed days. It is a personal devotion that many Catholics choose to do, and as a personal voluntary devotion may be set aside at will. Some may choose to set aside their personal sacrifices on Sundays, others do not; because they prefer to maintain their disciple throughout the whole six weeks of Lent, so that the entire season of Lent stands as a whole. It is a matter of personal choice. However, the Sundays in Lent are still celebrations of the Lord's Day of resurrection. 

I have experimented with both relaxing my Lenten observance on the Sundays in Lent, and keeping the Lenten discipline for the Lenten season. I remember one Lent deciding to enjoy an extra treat on Sundays, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a negative at that time. I ended up struggling even harder during the following week, and in the end gave up the struggle and continued with the feasting and not the fasting.!!!!

When I tried to keep the whole of Lenten season without breaking it on Sundays, I discovered that by the end of Lent, I had compromised and kept it half and half.  My conclusion on my Sunday Lenten experiment is that it depends on my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being at that time. The Church is wise in making it a matter of personal choice.

We have now almost completed our first full week of our Lenten journey.  How are you progressing?

LENTEN REVIEW.

One strategy that I have found useful is to engage in an Lenten review of my progress with the Lord at the end of each week. Reviewing my intentions vs reality of the week is always enlightening, but it provides an opportunity to recommit to my Lenten journey and to develop other strategies to assist me.

Some of my reflection questions include: 

1.            What were my Lenten observance intentions at the start of Lent?

2.            How am I progressing in these Lenten observances?

3.        Am I carrying out my Lenten observances with the right intention of heart- to change and to sincerely repent?

4.            Do my Lenten observances need to be modified because they were unsuitable initially? 

5.           Am I changing my Lenten observance for the right reasons  or am I being a lazy bones?

6.         What progress have I attempted to make during this week?

7.        What progress do I hope to achieve during the coming week?

8.       Have I had any unexpected surprises with my Lenten journey? (e.g. a unplanned Lenten observance which on reflection was spiritually rewarding and demonstrated God's grace working in me).

May our Lenten resolutions and strategies for week 2 of our Lenten journey bear abundant fruit.

 

Going for Gold

GOING FOR GOLD

Spiritual Figure Skating.

Have you been watching the Olympic Games in Vancouver?  I have been enjoying watching the various sports and been spell bound at the skill and giftedness of these athletes. As I was watching the games, I could not help think of the following scripture passage:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So, run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable" (1Cor 9:24-26).

ALL SEASONS SPIRITUAL GAMES.

On our pilgrim journey we are training daily for our spiritual Olympic Games, rather than a winter Olympics. Ours occurs 'in and out of season'.  Our gold medal is Heaven to see God face to face and to live and be happy with Him for ever. 

Imagine we are in the Figure Skating competition.  We need to compete in both the compulsory section and the free dance.

As Catholics, our compulsory spiritual moves must include:

• Attending Mass on Sunday-we feed our bodies every day. Feeding on the bread of life at least every week is essential as well as being connected to the family of God.
• Receiving the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation once a year between Ash Wednesday and Trinity Sunday.
• Abiding by the Church decree to fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
• Accepting the Church's teaching completely in faith without 'cherry picking' what we do not like.

Will this win us gold?  Do these Olympic champion figure skaters put in the absolute bare minimum move requirements and expect to win gold?

What about our spiritual free dance section? How will our spiritual free dance contribute to our score so that we can win gold in this section of the competition? Some suggested moves might include:

• Being a committed Catholic whose focus is to obtain gold- that is, reach our goal of Heaven. 
• Putting in a gutsy performance to the best of our ability every day.
• Asking Jesus to pick us up as we repent when we miss our moves and fall. He will forgive us in the sacrament of Penance if we sincerely express our sorrow. 
• Practising again those moves (our sins, weaknesses and failings).to change them into what God desires of us. (e.g. if the sin of gluttony is a problem for us, we must master the virtue of self-control).
• Desiring and striving to love Jesus with our whole heart, soul and mind. If we do not love Jesus with our whole being, then ask yourself why would we want to spend eternity with Him, especially if we are barely in relationship with Him?

Let us all stand on the podium and receive our gold medal 

and hear Jesus say to us'

'Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into your master's happiness'.

Thank- The Year of the Priest

 THE YEAR OF THE PRIEST.

The Year of the Priest Icon.

Thank- The Year of the Priest 

Welcome to my seventh post on 'The Year of the Priest' Series. Each week until end of June 2010, this series will provide food for thought on the Year of the Priest', examine how we, as laity, can appreciate the gift of Priesthood in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and encourage our priests in this special year. If you missed my last four posts on this series, why not take a look.

I wish to focus our attention on how we might actively help our priests. I will use the acrostic form P-R-I-E-S-T

 PRAY...REFLECT...IMAGINE...ESTEEM...SUPPORT ...THANK  

Last week I wrote about SUPPORT

THANK

 Let us continue with THANK.

It has been said that thankfulness is the key to holiness. The late Pope John Paul 11 named thanksgiving as an essential element to Jesus' prayer life and union with God. He said: "At the very heart of all that Jesus says and does is His awareness that everything is a gift of God, and that the only adequate response to to give thanks."
St Ambrose recommended that thankfulness is good manners, gracious and an important duty.  Thankfulness encourages us to think of the wonders God has done for us personally and to render thanks with love. 

To be thankful of our priest means to:

·                     Gladden your priest and to gladden Christ. The priest's assignment to our parishes was screened through God's providence, wisdom and love. A thankful gesture can sustain him through rugged intervals when he feels unappreciated by those who he serves.

·                     Understand that everything is a gift from God and to encourage a priest by walking the journey with him is a special gift God has given.

Obviously, every priest is unique with different gifts God has endowed. Get to know your priest well, so that you can show and give him the thanks he needs. What we do to show and give him thanks will be unique to each of us and unique to each priest. The important point is that we find our own unique way of rendering thanks to our priests, as it is the only adequate response to God's gift.

During this Year of the Priest, be challenged to thank your priest.

The Virtue Series: Justice Part 1

The Virtue Series: Justice Part 1

Explaining Justice.

Welcome again to my The Virtue Series: ‘The Virtues.'

This weekly series has a twofold focus, exploring in depth
1. What are the moral and theological virtues?

2. How these virtues may be practised in our lives.

If you have missed my previous posts in this series, why not explore them. You will find them in the faith nurturing category.  Let us continue on our journey as we now explore the virtue of Justice. Let us consider what is the virtue of Justice and why is it important in the Christian life?  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Justice as:

"the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbour...The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbour'(para 1607).

In the New Covenant, Jesus established the standard of justice on how we are to treat our neighbour, which are:

·                    

·         Mathew 5:21-22:  We are not to harm, insult or be angry with our neighbour.

·         Matthew 5:38-42: We are called to respond to injustice with kindness.

·         Romans 13:7-10:  We are to love our neighbour as ourselves.

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights that anger is an emotion and in itself is not wrong or sinful, but when it is not controlled by reason, or becomes hardened into resentment or hate, it becomes a sin against the fifth commandment 'Thou shall not kill'. Paragraphs 1765, 1866, 2262, 2302 provide further food for thought on this issue.  

PRACTISING THE VIRTUE OF JUSTICE.

Practising the virtue of Justice on a natural level without grace operating would entail a simple exchange of what is due and a proportionate response for wrongdoing.

Jesus reminds us 'be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect'. From the Christian perspective, Jesus requires us to go beyond the call of duty through the power of His love in us.  His commandments, as summed up by the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves, require grace.  Grace given by God when we ask Him in prayer will be our travelling companion on this pilgrim journey. Grace will enable us to reach the goal of Justice, which is to act towards God and others as He desires.

Practising Justice means:

·          Habitually giving another person what is due such as being respectful, courteous and honest with our dealings with others.

·         Presupposing that others have rights and that we actually owe someone something religious freedom, a fair wage).

The origin of human rights and dignity as highlighted in Genesis 1:26-30 is confirmed by God since we are made in the image of likeness of God.

Next week, let us examine how we can apply the virtue of Justice in our lives as we explore further:

·                     How do we render to God what is His due?

·                     How do we pay our debt?

·                     Why do we need reconciliation?  

·                     How is generosity linked to the moral virtue of Justice?

As we travel on our pilgrim journey this week, may we practice Justice in our lives. 

Chapter 1 : Scripture Series: Exploring Genesis.

EXPLORING GENESIS SERIES.

CHAPTER 1.

THE BIBLE: EXPLORING GENESIS.

Before considering the meaning and its significance of Genesis 1:26-28 in our understanding of the role of humanity, it is important to remember what has gone before this passage and what come after, viz, the 8 acts of creation:

·                     Light and darkness/day and night.

·                     Earth’s atmosphere: the firmament.

·                     Dry land and sea separated.

·                     Plants and trees,

·                     Sun, moon and stars: Seasons days, years.

·                     Sea creatures and birds.

·                     Land animals and mankind (day 6)

·                     Creation completed and God rests.

In each of the ‘acts of creation’, it is introduced by the words ‘and God said’. 

However, the story of creation is more than just a poetic story. It is vital because it tells us what we need to know in order to understand ourselves, and the world around us, namely,

1.    The origin of the world and life is no accident. There IS a Creator: GOD.

2.    God made everything there is.

3.    All that God made was good.

4.    The high point of all of God’s 8’creative acts’ was the making of mankind. We are told that ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good’ (Gn 1:31)

5.    Mankind is distinguished from all other creatures in 2 respects: he alone is made in God’s own likeness; and he is given charge over all the rest of His creation.

6.    God’s ‘six days of creative activity’ followed by a day of rest, sets the pattern for our working lives.

SIGNIFICANCE OF GENESIS 1:26-28

When we consider the significance of Gen 1:26-28 specifically, it is important to consider the following aspects contained therein:

1. Mankind is made in God’s own likeness, which sets people apart from animals.  It establishes then in a special relationship.

2. God gives them control over the newly made world, which He created, and all its creatures.

3.Being made in God’s own likeness is so vital, that even though later man sinned and spoiled God’s creation, it did not destroy man from remaining a reasoning, moral and creative creature.  He is still intended to be in control of God’s environment.  To make him no more than an animal is it make him less than man- in God’s likeness.

4. God blessed them and told them to ‘be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’.  In other words, God, even though he created everything for them was prepared to give them full ownership of His creation and in doing so, He blessed them. God gave them the awesome responsibility for His creation but also gave them free  will to choose to know and love Him.

5.God made them male and female. In God’s design male and female were to be complimentary.

I hope that as we journey through the book of Genesis, it may bring a richer meaning for you, especially at the Easter Vigil when the creation story is read

Opening Prayer Series: First Sunday of Lent Yr C

OPENING PRAYER SERIES.

The Opening Prayer of the Mass for the First Sunday of Lent reads as follows:

THE MASS: OPENING PRAYER SERIES ICON

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray

(that this Lent will help us reproduce in our lives 

the self-sacrifice love of Christ)

Father, 

through our observance of Lent 

help us to understand the meaning 

of Your Son's death and resurrection

and teach us to reflect in in our lives.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS.

In making this prayer tangible for my life during this week, the following reflection questions emerged:

1. What does Christ's self-sacrifice mean to me personally?
2. Why do I want a change of heart this Lent? What graces do I need to make this change authentic?
3. Do we desire to reproduce this self-sacrifice in my life?
4. What are the obstacles/limitations/sins that hinder my effort to reproduce Christ's self-sacrifice?
5. How might I work on one of these obstacles this week?
6. What is my current understanding of the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection ?
7. What steps will I take this week to help this understanding to grow?
8. How will I reflect it in my life during Lent? Does my Lenten observance support this goal?

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

On the first Sunday of Lent, the Church highlights the temptations of Christ by Satan. Christ took on human nature and experienced temptation, but remained sinless, faithful and obedient to His Father's will.  

The challenge for us is exactly the same. We face all sorts of temptations in our lives.  We need God's grace to be faithful and obedient to our calling given by God.  When we are tempted, we can take heart and call from our hearts ’Be with us Lord for I am in trouble'.

As we enter into the first full week of Lent, 

let us live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Help Me to Remember

 Reflection and Prayer.

THE CANDLE: REFLECTION AND PRAYER SERIES.

Help Me to Remember

My reflection and prayer series is about sharing reflections and Prayers which have impacted upon me and have provided food for thought. I hope that they will also nurture your soul and spirit. I acknowledge the author when it is known, whilst others I am unaware of the author.

If you missed the previous posts in this series, why not take a look.

My fifth post in this series is called:

HELP ME TO REMEMBER

Help me to remember

those who might be easy to forget-

those who go unnoticed...and unloved.

Let me take the time to see,

to smile, to hug, to hold a hand,

or just sit quietly and be there,

as a comforting reminder that You care.

Almsgiving, comprising time, talent and treasure is one of the tools we are encouraged by the Church to practice during Lent. We often have many opportunities to use it in our circle of family, friends, work-colleagues and in our parish. Let us be brave and open our eyes and look.

How might we practice it during this week?