What am I going to do for Lent?

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table

Lent begins  Ash Wednesday. What am I going to do for Lent? The supper table is a good place for asking that question , It represents life that’s closest to us here and now. Lent is about renewing ourselves as we are here and now. The people across the table where we live, or work or go to school with are a good start.

A scripture reading early on in Lent says: “Don’t turn your back on your own.”  Have we turned our backs on those closest to us? Let’s start with paying attention to them. Lent is a time for renewing ourselves where we are, in real life and real time, with those who are “our own.”.

The Ash Wednesday scriptures say: pray, fast and give alms. Let’s pray with the church during Lent. The scriptures for each day are a good place to start. Here’s where you can find the Lenten scriptures. www.usccb.org

See what’s going on in the churches nearby. Pray with others. We don’t pray with others enough.

Fasting takes many forms. Lent is a good time to fast from our own hard opinions of others. Too many people seem to be spoiling for a fight these days.

Can I give something to someone, maybe my time or attention. Can I give to some good cause?

Let’s keep before our eyes the terrible sufferings going on in our world today, but let’s see them in the light of the great mystery we celebrate: the death and resurrection of Jesus. Keep his Passion in mind. He gives us new hope.

Let’s not forget something else, though. What’s God does during Lent. That’s important. Lent is a time of God’s grace, an “acceptable time” when God pours out grace for us and the world we live in. The great sign of God’s limitless love is the Passion of his Son, a wondrous love beyond all others.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

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Lent 1


Today’s Readings

Then Jesus said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Jesus offers a blunt challenge in this reading from Luke’s gospel;  a challenge to his disciples then and to us now. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” In fact, he speaks to all.

No one escapes the cross. It’s there each day.  It may not look  like the stark cross Jesus received from the hands of the chief priests, the elders and the scribes in Jerusalem, but it’s there all the same. We may not see it because it’s so much a part of  life, but if we look closely our cross is there.

Actually, taking up our cross is a way of choosing life, which Moses urges in our first reading today, choosing not some “good” life, or idealized life, but life as it is. It means accepting life gratefully, fully, without resentfulness. If we listen to Moses in today’s first reading, choosing life affects not only ourselves but others too. Listen to him:

I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

A traditional Christian practice to begin the day is to make the Sign of the Cross. We do it to remind ourselves of the daily cross we bear and remember we do not bear it alone. God helps us bear whatever life brings each day. Christ bears it with us as he promised. The Sign of the Cross calls us to change the world we live in, as well as bearing with it. Let’s remember this basic Christian practice in lent for the patience and courage it gives us.

St. Paul of the Cross once wrote a letter to Teresa, a woman overwhelmed by life.  What shall I do? she said. Paul urges her to let God’s Will decide for her what to do. He wanted people to find their cross and embrace it. It’s there before us.

“Teresa, listen to me and do what I’m telling you to do in the Name of the Lord. Do all you can to be resigned to the Will of God in all the sufferings that God permits, in your tiredness and in all the work you have to do. Keep your heart at peace and be recollected; don’t get upset by things. If you can go to church, go; if you can’t, stay home quietly; just do the Will of God in the work you have at hand.” (Letter 1135)

Bless me, Lord,
and help me take up the cross
that’s mine today,
though it may not seem like a cross at all. Let me accept it gratefully.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lent Online

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Lent begins. If you are following this blog, I’ll be providing daily reflections on the lenten liturgy. For additional lenten material I invite you to scan PassionistsPray ..

The Passion of Jesus:   http://passionofchrist.us

Commentary on the Passion Gospels: https://passionofchrist.us/commentary/

Stations of the Cross:   Video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waaMOBJ5e1Q&list=PLLUFZUgOPMFxkmfgBNS4Kfm8XxEwoAd6f&index=11

Stations of the Cross for Children: https://passionofchrist.us/stations-of-the-cross-children/

Prayers :  https://passionofchrist.us/prayers/

Studies on the Passion of Jesus: https://passionofchrist.us/recent-studies/

For material for leading children into the lenten season see: https://ourchildrenpray.com

Scripture Readings for the lenten season: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/word-of-the-day.html

The Passion of Jesus is a wise and tender book that reveals God to us. “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” this Lent.

Ash Wednesday– Remember You Are Dust

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“Remember, Man, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This Ash Wednesday ashes will be placed on our forehead. Look carefully at this popular rite opening the lenten season.

We think of ashes, dust, as signs of death. Going down to dust seems to say it’s over. But that line from the Book of Genesis can also mean we return to the soil. The soil doesn’t say life is over. In the Book of Genesis soil is where life begins and continues to be refreshed again.

In fact, “Humans– despite  their many accomplishments–owe their existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”  

That’s the way Jesus sees it when he speaks of seed falling to the ground. It has to fall to the ground to bring life again. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24)

In a letter, St. Paul of the Cross wrote about mystical death. It may help us think about today. 

“Life means dying every day as servants and friends of God. ‘We die daily; for you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ We undergo a mystical death.

“I’m confident you’ll be reborn to new life in the sacred mysteries of Jesus Christ, as you die mystically in Christ more and more each day, in the depths of the Divinity. Let your life be hidden with Christ in God…

“What’s mystical death? It means concentrating on divine life, desiring God, accepting all God sends without worry. It means letting God work in your soul, in the sanctuary of your soul, where no creature, angelic or human, can go. Know that God is working there and being born in you as you mystically die.  (Letter, Dec 28, 1758)

So God brings us to life as we go back to life’s soil. God will bring us new life; Jesus Christ tells us that in the mystery of his death and resurrection. 

Whatever we do with the ashes this Ash Wednesday we bless them first with the Sign of the Cross. We’re blessed by God.

“O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting? …Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ( 1 Corinthians 15, 55, 57)

On Ash Wednesday– Remember You Are Soil

The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden

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Mount Olives 3


The Feast of Jesus Praying in the Garden is another feast St. Paul of the Cross placed at the beginning of the lenten season,. Lent is a season for prayer, fasting and almsgiving, but notice prayer is the first.

All the gospels tell us Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. Matthew says he taught them to pray on a mountain–a traditional place to draw close to God. It was the prayer we call the “Our Father” . (Matthew 6, 9-13)

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “in a certain place”, on the plain, in the midst of daily life. (Luke 11, 2-4) Jesus prayed daily through life. The prayer he taught is more basic than the prayer found in Matthew’s Gospel..

“When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11,2-4)

Mark, Matthew and Luke recall Jesus praying in the garden before his passion; his disciples do not join him, but fall asleep.  

They sleep because the flesh is weak, Mark says.

They’ sleep because they can’t keep their eyes open, Matthew says.

They sleep because of grief, Luke says.

Stay awake and pray, Jesus tells them. Prayer brings you through times of testing and temptation. We’re are like the disciples, our flesh is weak, our spiritual eyes are weak, we can be overwhelmed by grief.

Facing weakness as he faces death, Jesus doesn’t wave it away in stoic resignation or look to his own power. “Not my will, but your will be done,” he says. Facing the consequences of his mission, the limits of human power, the “form of a slave,” he depends on his Father for the strength he needs.

In the garden Jesus teaches us how to face life’s trials. He kneels on the ground and humbly looks beyond himself to his Father, “Abba”, who hears him. He falls to the ground, trusting his Father’s strength and not his own. Troubled and distressed, for an hour’s time he simply pleads for help. . 

“He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” Luke says. Then, an angel comes to strengthen him. The cup of suffering isn’t taken away; he will drink from it, but it will not crush him. God will raise him up.

He teaches us to pray as he did and promises to be with us in our trials.

This feast calls us to pray with Christ. It also tells us to pray with the church. Lent is a time to enter into the church’s praye, to enter its feasts, to use its devotions.

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The Letter of James

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We’re reading at Mass for the next few days from the Letter of James. Modern commentators aren’t sure who greets his hearers as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion.” He doesn’t seem to be James, the brother of John. Possibly he is a relative of Jesus and leader of the Jewish-Christians in Jerusalem as some say.

James was stoned to death in the mid 60s as the Jewish establishment turned against the followers of Jesus and forced many of them to flee. Jerusalem itself fell in 70 AD when Roman armies destroyed the city and crushed the Jewish revolt. Jewish-Christian exiles were exiled from their beloved city and would never return. Some commentators believe this letter contains an original letter of James sent to support the exiles and other material was later added to it.

The letter opens with words of support. It’s tough to be thrown into exile, but tough times test your faith, so be brave, your faith will become stronger. God will give you the wisdom to know what to do; keep asking for it. But be “doers of the word,” the author of the letter says. Be practically concerned for others.

What does it mean to be practically concerned? The letter couldn’t be clearer about it:

“If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them,’Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?

Though the letter speaks of “a brother or a sister” as the one in need, it isn’t just a family member or a friend you’re called to care for. Concern doesn’t end with your own; it’s impartial and extends to all in need, even our enemies.

The letter surely isn’t directed only to concern by individuals either. Don’t countries and communities have to look out for the needy? “Don’t worry, work hard, aim high and good luck.” Is that any answer to the poor among us?

The Letter of James says it isn’t.

Some consoling words are given to the exiles, but not many.  The letter is challenging;  no relaxing of standards, no permission for self-pity. Keep your standards high, the letter insists and as the old song says: “When you’re down and out, lift up your head and shout: There’s gonna be a great day.”

Leaven of the Pharisees, Leaven of Herod;Mark 8:14-21

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Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod. …
Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?…
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? Do you still not understand?”      

(Mark 8:14-21)

Harsh words of Jesus to his disciples. They occur, not early in Mark’s Gospel, but as they prepare to go up to Jerusalem, after many miracles Jesus has done and many times he has taught. Yet they do not understand.

Is this still true for his disciples today? Mark’s Gospel reminds us how much, like them, we don’t know.

How should we guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod? I suppose that means the corruption that can take place in religion and in politics. We live in an imperfect world. 

If Mark is writing in Rome –and I think he is– he would have to be careful about criticizing the government, especially in the wake of Nero’s persecution. Mark writes more of the scribes and pharisees who oppose Jesus. He speaks less about Herod; he has to be discreet. 

So every time I hear about Herod and the Herodians in Mark’s Gospel I hear him talking about Nero and Rome’s rulers. His description of John the Baptist’s death and the absurd circumstances that brought it on– Herodias’ vindictiveness, Herod’s care for his reputation, the cowardly compliance of his court– are not limited to that event from the time of Jesus. Mark is alluding to Nero’s cruel attack on the Christians of Rome who, like John, were innocent. 

When he tells the story of the passion of Jesus Mark is also telling the Christians of Rome their story. Jesus was there with them. Jesus is there with them.

Let’s not stop at the early Christians of Rome, however. He’s also talking to us in our world.

Feasts for Tired Believers

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Central Italy, 1800s

The Passionists celebrate two feasts immediately before Ash Wednesday. The Solemn Commemoration of the Passion of Jesus Christ on the Friday before Ash Wednesday. The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden on Tuesday before that day.

Both feasts are inspired by our missionary founder, St. Paul of the Cross, (1694-1775). He spent many years announcing the graces of lent in the villages and towns of the Tuscan Maremma in Italy..

It was a challenging task. The Tuscan Maremma was then a place where graces seemed gone. It was the poorest, most troubled part of Italy in Paul’s day, an area in Central Italy facing the Mediterranean Sea, almost 2,000 square miles– roughly the size of Long Island and New York City together. Only gradually, towards the end of the 1700s, after his death, did it begin inching towards recovery.

St.PaulCross.017

Now Tuscanny is a popular tourist destination. Then it was an unhealthily mix of hills and swamplands. Malaria was widespread, roads often impassible, dangerous because of bandits. Farmlands were abandoned; beggars everywhere. The people in isolated villages and hill towns suspected outsiders.

Paul and his companions preached there for many years. Every year it was the same; it never seemed to change. You need other eyes and another kind of heart to work in a world like that and not get tired.

And so as they packed their bags for their lenten journey into the Tuscan Maremma they had to remind themselves what was there before them: the mystery of the Passion of Christ. They needed to pray so they wouldn’t forget. That’s what Jesus did before the mystery of his Passion.

It’s still so today, isn’t it? These two feasts are for all kinds of tired believers, who face the world where things don’t seem to change. We need another way of seeing things and another kind of heart to journey on..

If you want to pray these feasts with the Passionists, go here.

Welcome to Lent

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6th Sunday a: Sermons from the Mount

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For this week’s homily please watch the video below.