LET IT aLL sTART hERE
For Catholics who care...
Our pastor's sermon this morning was so inspirational and instructional I felt compelled to postpone my own Ash Wednesday reflection in order to share it with all who are trying to turn toward God. Have a blessed Lenten Season! Homily Ash Wednesday 2015
Joel 2:12-18; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Prayer, fasting and alms giving ... important disciplines in the Christian life carried over from our Jewish heritage. I encourage you to do something from each category this Lenten season, with the idea that you’ll carry it over into your everyday lives, as seasons come and seasons go. If you weren’t able to make it to Mass last weekend, check out my homily on the website. I talk about barriers that get in the way of our cleanness of life in body or mind, heart or soul, and that Lent is a great time to begin fasting from those barriers. I also talk about how prayer is essential in first identifying the barriers between us and God, and also in ensuring success through the process of tearing them down, and keeping them out of the way. We also have these little black books at the doors to help you recreate, renew, or strengthen your daily life of prayer. Giving alms is most often thought of as making donations to help those in need, and we have the rice bowls at the doors as a way of doing that. But you can also give other things besides money. In the spirit of the New Evangelization, I suggest that once a week, you give your faith away to someone in need. A less intimidating way to do that might be to visit the blog I’ve mentioned a few times before: www.letitallstarthere.com. There've been some wonderful things written there lately that have inspired some wonderful faith sharing among strangers and friends. Commit to contributing part of your own faith story once a week for Lent. Whatever you do for these 40 days, do it in the spirit desired by the Lord, described by the Prophet Joel. Make sure your heart is really in it! If these practices are nothing more than added burdens in your life, that you complain about until Easter Sunday, they are meaningless, if not outright offensive to God. “Rend your hearts, not your garments.” Back in the day, the practice of rending garments meant to tear your clothing as a sign of intense emotion – anger, grief or despair. God wants the sign to be genuinely meaningful ... he wants our hearts to be torn open, with contrition for sins, and with burning desire for reconciliation. You probably know your heart is a muscle. When you exert other muscles in your body with high resistance training like lifting weights, you get sore the next day or two, because the exercise actually causes micro-tears in your muscle tissue ... your muscles bleed, and that hurts. But with rest and nutrition, the healing of that tissue makes the muscles grow and get stronger. Hence, the phrase: no pain, no gain. Now, think about Lent and the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and alms giving, as spiritual exercise for your heart. Embrace the challenge, the difficulty, the sacrifice of these penitential practices, and allow them to rend your heart ... feel the pain of tearing your heart away from your own wants, needs, and desires, so that it might focus on something other than itself. Make the struggle a deliberate offering of self-gift, and do so joyfully, that your heart might grow ... both in capacity and strength ... to love God fully, as he first loved you, and to love your neighbors as yourself.
19 Comments
jackie white
2/18/2015 10:00:53 am
Evelyn, when you started the blog, I feared replying. Now I look forward to reading what interests you and how I can share, also.
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charlene caramore
2/20/2015 11:16:50 pm
It's a wonderful thing that something as simple as wearing a medal can begin the evangelization process. I always wear my Miraculous medal and a Cross on the same chain and I've had such beautiful conversations with people because of that. And some aren't so lovely too but it gives me an opening to make a faith statement that I hope will get people thinking. Once when I was in a play one of the other actresses came up to me while I was getting into costume, pointed to my necklace and said, "That's got to go." I said, "No, it doesn't come off." She's a Catholic too but I hope that the simplicity of my comment--no arguing, no defensiveness, just a statement of fact--made a point. After that, I had been in plays that she directed and it never was mentioned again. At other times, I've gotten a chance to explain what the medal means in our faith and also to me. We are so blessed in our faith.
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jackie white
2/20/2015 11:49:12 pm
Charlene,
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jackie white
2/23/2015 03:47:01 am
The Lord led me to giving my faith away Friday of last week. I have been called to pastoral care ministry at the hospital for my parish. As I usually do, I check the Catholic list for parishioners and I bring Christ through my own presence to the patients on my list. There was only one that day.
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charlene caramore
2/25/2015 11:50:08 am
What a great story, Jackie. One of the ladies in my Kateri class on ministry always says, "There are no coincidences, just God-incidents." How true! When the Holy Spirit acts, we just stand in awe at the goodness of our God. All praise to Him! Many blessings.
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Diane DeDominicis
2/26/2015 02:54:19 am
What a wonderful and inspiring Homily! Thank you, Evelyn, for sharing it here with us!
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jackie white
2/28/2015 09:27:33 pm
Charlene,
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3/1/2015 10:52:05 am
“Rend your hearts, not your garments.” really hits home with me, as right now I'm wrestling with a crisis of conscience that maybe other Catholic readers can identify with and/or weigh in on.
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Hi Mr. Anthony! I just saw your post and need to re-read it and digest all that you have written. I had an initial response...as I always do. But alas, I will have our heart like our dear Blessed Mother and ponder this for a bit. I am about to post a new blog about prayer. Please read, comment and pass the link on.
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Thank you for raising this issue dear sir. I am hoping that Fr. Michael can speak to the concerns you have shared here. You will find that he is an essential resource for us. His training in seminary, his continual study of the faith, along with his critical and analytical thinking skills from his previous life as an engineer, have given him the ability to piece together many facts from many sources and connect the dots beautifully. Or simply put: The Holy Spirit is working though him. In any case, I urge you to reach out to him outside of the confines of this blog. He, if you are in the right frame of mind…with an open heart and willingness to trust, can assuage your crisis of conscience. I see it happen all the time during his Sunday homilies. And believe me I listen with a critical ear and I am watching the people in the pews.
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3/3/2015 06:33:03 am
Thank you, Evelyn, for your thoughtful and well-reasoned response to my comment about the imposition of ashes.
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I know that these Catholic rituals (as with any ritual) are intended to unify us and not to divide us. I am sad about your prediction: "...inasmuch as I am the only one who does not accept the ashes, my sense of apartness and alienation is strong, and in future years it is likely to intensify". I can tell you are a great thinker from our few exchanges Mr. Anthony, so I am asking that you set your intellect aside and read this with the eyes of faith: We are called to be the Body of Christ...the Church and its members are Christ's Body: "There are different offices/gifts/ministries given to members to build up the Church, of which Christ is the head.
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3/4/2015 04:12:29 am
I AM with you, Evelyn, and appreciate the honesty that you and your readers share in these comments. Yes, we are one body, and as our Lord says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."-- John: 5
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I 'm grateful for your readership, your support of the blog and for your thoughtful comments. Thank you. This morning I am working on a new post: In Search of an Altar Boy.
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jackie white
3/7/2015 01:21:43 am
Evelyn,
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3/7/2015 05:16:20 am
Evelyn,
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jackie white
3/7/2015 07:12:24 am
Richard,
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Hi Mr. Anthony! I am writing an essay now for my next post: In Search of the Alter Boy. It promises to be one of my more disruptive blogs. But you know ... I want to make people uncomfortable
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