Okay, Catholics, you know what season is coming up in just a few days! Can you believe it's that time already? Let's do this right.
If you have not yet signed up for Fr. Robert Barron's free daily Lenten reflections, click over there today, submit your email address (that's all!), and get ready for a fruitful Lent:
Also, I hope y'all don't mind, but I am going to repeat my Fulton Sheen Lenten series from last year, because frankly it was so inspirational for me that I need to see it all and read it all over again. The venerable archbishop is such a gift to our Church and the world; his words and reflections never get old but become more profound with each encounter.
So, stay tuned for that (and some regular blog posts) as we approach the purifying desert of Lent, which I so desperately need and which I dread, simultaneously.
I think a lot of you know just what I mean.
Ash Wednesday is next week, so be ready to fast and abstain with joy, my peeps! We're all in this together!
Bring on Lent! I love this time of year and Sheen should have his own posts year round. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Leila! I loved your Fulton Sheen posts last year. I think, I too, will really need them this Lent. I want to really make the most of this season. I decided to give up wine! LOL! :) Hope you are well. My 18 year old politically astute son, keeps me informed on AZ politics because that seems to be what's current at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSo we enter the ring for the 40 day fight. Prayers for all to have grace upon grace as we enter into it.
ReplyDeleteFr. Barron and Bishop Sheen, excellent.
I'll addeth:
This blog that is currently running a several part series called, Preaching the Divine Attributes.
http://www.dominicanablog.com/
I enjoy the posts at this blog for the insight and nuggets of wisdom. Nothing too lofty, just wisdom expressed succinctly. Thanks for turning me on to it, in one of your previous QT.
Some good Catholic phone apps are out there, too, offering brief audio meditations on gospel readings, and papal discourse. Always uplifting and easy to digest. Good manna in the wilderness.
Huzzah for more of my beloved Venerable Sheen! And I too am both overly excited and overly dreadful for Lent. My soul is craving the deep cleanse, but it will take a lot of God's grace for me to cooperate in rooting out my sinful habits and vices. I'm also still trying to find joy in fasting, since all too often I do out of reluctance, instead of out of love for Christ.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about self discipline. The girl scouts try to break you by selling their cookies at this time of year. This will only be the second year I don't get the ashes.
ReplyDeleteBill...sorry not following the blog closely, but what deconverted you?
ReplyDeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteI would say that my faith peaked in February 2009 when I made my Cursillo (little course) and was in a men's group. One of my brothers was an atheist and I was concerned for his salvation. We would have heated email exchanges and I started to read some of the books that he was referring to by the New Atheists. Gradually, they started to make more and more sense to me and my religious practices began to seem silly. I would pray the glorious mysteries and my meditations would make me see how impossible each mystery was. The Assumption was the one that did it for me. By the time I stopped believing in the Resurrection I no longer found any sense of meaning or purpose in religion or in my life. I have been climbing back to a state of good mental health and adjusting to a new worldview which I refine through discussions and further reading. Thank you for asking.
As I just wrote on Joanna's blog, I've had this thought (quite strongly) that I should live this Lent as though I was living the last 40 days of my life - doing at least all the key things that that would entail. It's an enticing but tiring (and even weirdly unnerving) thought at the same time. So help me out, if you will. Name some of the important things you might do (not just spiritually) if you had only 40 days left to your personal Good Friday. If I can put a list together easily, I might give it a shot - and even report back on the experience! I don't want to be "morbid", but suspect a dry run of something like this might just prove to be helpfully enlightening, educative, or maturative... :)
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I've thought of so far is to go out on Fat Tuesday and get gloriously drunk! Haven't thought of too much else after that! :)
DeleteName some of the important things you might do (not just spiritually) if you had only 40 days left to your personal Good Friday.
ReplyDeleteGive up blogging.
How about fly to AZ for that coffee with Leila? :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question, though, Francis. I'll have to really think about that as I make my personal goals for Lent.
sarahcecelia, ha!
ReplyDeleteGosh, it's a great question. I have a few things I can think of, including prayer discipline, and loving each individual in my life much better. Self-forgetfulness.