1st Sunday of Lent Reflection

During this first week of Lent, we begin our journey in the wilderness to deepen our   relationship with the Lord by coming face to face with our sins, our trials, our challenges. We reflect on our desires, examine our    motives, adjust our priorities, and evaluate our interactions. To help, God gives us three great tools of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer is the vehicle of communication and conversation with our God to open our mind, heart, and soul to change. Fasting is to    deprive ourselves for a short period of time of foods that we like or to limit its intake  during a sacred time. Fasting can also be done by less engagement or to eliminate involvement in an activity that we take  pleasure in such as being on social media, etc. And, Almsgiving provides us opportunities to give to those most in need like giving food, clothing, or monetary gifts to the poor. Almsgiving can also be sharing of ourselves with others by offering our time, talents or treasures for an individual, our family, our parish, or our community.  Jesus tells us that “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you   everything and remind you of all that [I] told you,” John 14:26.

This Lenten Season, the Holy Spirit will guide you in your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, so you can enter more deeply into the life, passion, death, preparing for the resurrection, of Our Lord (the Paschal Mystery).  As the Father and the Spirit guided and strengthened Jesus during His journey on this earth, They, along with Christ, will be with you always to encourage you, strengthen you, and renew you this Lenten Season and always . . .

Listed below are suggestions adapted from the Word Among Us, 2023 that will help you and our parish community to open ourselves up through prayer and ready us to receive the needed guidance and strength during these Forty Days of Lent.

+  Try to establish a quiet and comfortable place in your home to spend alone with Our Lord.
+  Start by centering yourself, free from   distractions, and begin by some phrase or sentence similar to – “Our Father (or Abba), your child  needs your embrace, hear me.” God is your loving parent, ready yourself to talk to Our Lord.
+   Spend several minutes telling God how much you praise and love the goodness that flows forth from the Lord and how much you have gratitude in your heart for the forgiveness, the love, the compassion and the mercy that comes from the Divine Heart. Use the Psalms in your Bible or spiritual readings like Amazing Love to help you    express what is in your heart and soul.    
+  Ask the Lord to help you understand how best to approach this specific day in Lent and to guide you on your path to  renewal. How might you better communicate through prayer, discipline your life in a good way through fast, or to serve the Lord and others through almsgiving?
 + Look forward to your day and ask your God to help you to do His will throughout it. Ask God to prepare you, to encourage you, to embrace you and to give you strength in all things. Ask for Lord’s will to be done in you and through you.
+  Throughout your day, always remind yourself of God’s presence as Our Lord dwells in you and walks with you. Bless yourself and envelope yourself in the Cross of Christ when you need strength.
+   At the end of your day, before bedtime, go back to your quiet and comfortable place in your home, and thank the Lord for your day. Examine how your day progressed and thank God for the goodness that flowed forth. Ask God to help in the areas where you were tempted to stray from the Lord at your side, or where you forgot about the Divine presence or failed to acknowledge it. Ask God to grant you a good day or better day tomorrow.
Then wake up the next day, and begin again to walk with the Lord by Keeping a Holy Lent . . .

Fr. John