Musings, meditations and a bit of whining ...

... as I sit here at 1:50 am ...

the house is silent... we've brought in the New Year and I'm catching up on my reading of the Magnificat for this evening. Fr. Cameron (OP, of course) has some great meditations in this issue.

But what really strikes me and mine tonight is the example of Simeon and Anna -- both of whom waited and prayed ... prayed and waited for God to answer their pleas. They never gave up ... just kept praying the same prayer and it was answered with the birth of Jesus in a Stable in Bethlehem!

We have waited since end-of-March-2008 for the sale of our home in Denver. We have prayed novenas to St. Joseph, beseeched the help of Mary and prayed directly to God ...

... but our house still remains un-sold.

But tonight (or rather, this morning), I find hope ... hope in trusting that God will answer this prayer in His time ... not in mine! As Fr. Cameron puts it:

What at first seems like refusal on the Lord's part is in fact an invitation to greater ardor. Jesus blesses us with the chance to show Him how much we rely on Him and how little we can depend on ourselves.

In other words ... when we've done all we can ... all we have left is prayer and asking God to take over!

Please join us in praying for God's will to be done in the sale of our house in Denver!

Lent: Ash Wednesday begins the journey ...

... the journey (hopefully) to a better me, a better home and a better world over the next 40 days. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? But a wonderful thing about the Catholic Church is her giving me special time to make reparation for the things I need to fix in my life. The things that will rebuild my relationship with a loving God who wants me, and you, and all of us to simply know, love and serve Him.

Ash Wednesday, which is VERY early this year, is the first day of this 40-day spiritual journey to new birth. In the Magnificat, which I love to read and will TRY to read everyday this Lent, there is a wonderful essay this month by Father William M. Joensen, seminary spiritual director and professor of philosophy at Loras College and chaplain at Clarke College both in Dubuque, Iowa.

Here are some quotes that really struck me as I read his essay, titled "Lent and the Soil of Ourselves":

• A gritty cross is placed upon our forehead; when mingled with the purple of penance, black becomes us.
• We are ashen-faced as we realize how much God has bestowed upon us, how readily God waits for us, appeals to us, longing to share the joy of salvation, offering us his Son!
• ... as we glimpse the specks of dust blessed and applied to our foreheads, we marvel as we realize that God knows each one of the grains of ash, every molecule of which the universe, including ourselves, is made. How much more, then, does God know our situation, the secrets held in the inner recesses of our being.
• Each of us is entrusted during Lent with the sacred task of going into the soil of ourselves, inviting the Spirit to help us venture into the inmost recesses of our being ...
• These (lenten) practices are not cosmetic devices meant to attract attention and yet distract us from the work of grace in the space of our souls. They are to help liberate us to look beyond our limits ...

and finally,

• We heed the appeal to go within our own hearts and allow God to unearth the love lying hidden beneath the detritus of sin. If we do so, our faces, our lives will assume a Christ-like cast. Our way of being will proclaim that the day of salvation has arrived: He is risen indeed!

This essay really "spoke" to me ... I get so caught up in the unimportant and forget to take time to stop, listen and love God fully. This Lent, my 46th Lent, will be more than bellyaching about what I'm missing -- this Lent will be my chance to, as Fr. Joensen puts it:

be more present, patient, prayerful, and positive in our dealings with others ...

My prayer for you, and me, and all I know and love this Lent 2008 is a renewed sense of God in our lives -- a renewed sense that He is always there to welcome us back into the sheepfold.

Blessings,

OOOPS - Forgot Spy Wednesday!

Earlier this week, in regaling you dear reader with the highlights of Holy Week, I had forgotten today: Spy Wednesday. This is the day that Judas sells out Jesus and his ministry for 30 pieces of silver.

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him (Mt 26:14-16).

Can you imagine, selling out the Lord for 50 pieces of silver? Or 100 pieces of silver? Or even 1000 pieces of silver?

Thanks to a suggestion from Jenn at Family in Feast and Feria, we'll be adding silver-dollar-sized wheat pancakes to our dinner tonight (which should improve dinner substantially as we're just having left-overs in order to clean out the 'frig before Triduum!). We'll use yogurt and raspberry jam to signify Jesus purity and the silver "blood money" and omit the blueberries and sunflower seeds!

UPDATED to add this meditation from the Holy Week issue of Magnificat:

Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of
darkeness, but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this anonymous
power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, 'Away with
him! Crucify him!"

Pope Benedict XVI

This is so ME! It's often so much easier to bow to what others want or are doing rather than say, "no, this is against my religion or my morals" -- I'm getting better but it's a long, slow rise up from the desert of the secular world!