Lenten Reflection With Thomas Merton

Photo by Jim Forest

Please continue to journey with me this Lent as we are taught by those who have lessons to teach. So it is that today we are visited by Thomas Merton in the book Lent and Easter Wisdom from Thomas Merton from The Thomas Merton Institute for Contemplative Living. Let us stop and listen.

Lent Is Our "Holy Spring"

Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of the great Easter cycle.

The Paschal Mystery is above all the mystery of life in which the Church, by celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ , enters into the Kingdom of Life which He has established once for all by His definitive victory over sin and death. We must remember the original meaning of Lent, as the ver sacrum, the Church's "holy spring" i n which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a communion with the rest of the Church. Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing. ~Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration, 113

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A Season of Celebration

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself...So we are ambassadors for Christ...we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who know no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says

"At an acceptable time I have listened to yo, and on a day of salvation I have helped you."

See now is the acceptable time; see now is the day of salvation!

2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2

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Prayer

With faith in your resurrection, with hope in your power that undoes every death, I lift up my heart with love for you. She for your Holy Spirit who makes me more deeply your disciple. Crossing the threshold of this holy season, I renew my gratitude for the gift of being alive. On this Holy Wednesday, my forehead smeared with ashes, I accept my own death as holy: you have sanctified it. I offer my life and my death in thanksgiving to you, Jesus, the Christ, my Savior and my God.

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Lenten Journal

However you write in your Lent and Easter Journal, be truthful to your own experience. The question proposed for each day is only suggestive. Give your heart and mind free range. First question: In what ways do you consider Lent to be a :season of celebration"?

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May God in all his Mercy bless us all as we journey together this wonderful Season of Lent and Easter!

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Thanks be to God!!

Wisdom from G. K. Chesterton

I will try during this Season of Holiness to offer reflections from those far more wise than me. I rely on these to offer me guidance and instruction, consolation and comfort. Hoping these will offer you all the same.

My first offering comes from Lent and Easter, Wisdom from G. K. Chesterton offered by The Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis and Friends. Published by Ligouri Press

Frenzied Asceticism

The essential difference between Christian and Pagan asceticism lies in the fact that Paganism in renouncing pleasure gives up something which it does not think desirable; whereas Christianity in giving up pleasure gives up something it thinks very desirable indeed. Thus there is a frenzy in Christian asceticism; its follies and renunciation are like those of first love. ~G. F. Watts

Spiritual Worship

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ~Romans 12:1.

Prayer

Father, we offer in you only what we have been given from you; our bodies and our selves. Show us how we can worship you through the use of our bodies and the giving of ourselves. We want to live for others, as your Son has taught us.

Lenten Action

It seems odd that we should give up pleasures that we consider good. but perhaps Chesterton's point in the quotation above is that we are always free to give up these pleasure and at times are drawn to do so out of love for others. As you go through your day today, think of pleasures you would like to give up for the sake of another. Would you miss an hour of sleep to speak with someone who needs your attention? Its there something else that you love but are willing to give up because you love some other person even more?

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Thanks be to God!!

Heavenly Resolve

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Thanks be to God!

Music Monday~~Amazing Grace

One of my favorite hymns sung by three angelic voices!!! Let the words and music settle deep inside you! God be praised!!!

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Thanks be to God!

If you wish to join in this Music Monday visit Shawntele's lovely blog Saved By Grace each Monday for a musical and inspiring start to your week. She hosts Music Monday where we are invited to post a song or video. This is an opportunity to share the music that lift your soul and enlightens your life.

Kinship

Kinship

Family ties
Common ground for living
Compassion, sharing, nurturing love
Family

Today is my scheduled day for Spiritual Direction with Sister Dorothy. As part of my Reflections for the Journey, I have been asked to reflect on kinship and those who nurture that kinship.

Family can comes in many forms. There is my biological family. I have a work family. There is my cherished church family. And then there is my dedicated and diligent prayer family. And now as an Associate of the Sisters of Providence, I find I have another family in which I can rely for support and to which I can offer support. In other words, I see kinship as an extension of who I am. I am part of the whole that has many parts.

Along the way there are those who have guided, formed and gently "tweaked" me into being, a progress that continues until I am called home to the Father. I have had loving and assertive mentors who sometimes found my laziness and diligence lacking in zeal and have nudged me firmly along the way. There are those at times who had to temper the zeal because it was out of control. I am a person of two extremes with the middle road sometimes less worn than the gullies on both sides of the road.

To those who have tried to keep me from the ditches I am eternally grateful for without you I would have long ago failed to get up and try again.

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin said:

To write requires time; but to love, to cherish, to pray for, through that desire we have for the happiness of our friends, time is not needed.

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Thanks be to God!!

Touched by the Word

I was invited by Valerie at Intelligent Expressions to share in picture, scripture and word project. It is meant to bolster and encourage us every day. Because I cannot make a commitment to do this daily I will try to share with you words through pictures that have touched me. I think this is wonderful idea. Please visit Valerie and share in her daily reflections. They are beautifully done and will draw you back daily. Offer your own!

So today is my first offering. May God bless you all abundantly this day!

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Thanks be to God!

(Just as with all posts...there are some rough edges. This one has some really rough edges, including the lack of a good editor!!! The zeal is there to share however!)

Music Monday~~Yahweh, I Know You Are Near

At a time when MANY are anxious, frightened, stressed or lost. I have found that this song is MY best reminder of where I should be seeking consolation.



There was a time when fear was seriously embedded in my heart. When the unknown was my greatest source of anxiety and over which I had no control. It is as vivid today as it was then the for one I loved with all my heart was going to be tested for possible cancer. He is my best friend, my lover and has been my life for forty years.

I wept, prayed, prayed and wept!!! Fear was that GREAT!!! In a dream, for He visits me this way at times, He sang these very words to me. As my dearest of friends was off to his procedure I began humming this tune. For over an hour there was nothing on my mind but the words to this song, a wonderful mantra, and sincerity of prayer. When the gastroenterologist came to us and gave us the report...he told us that there was an ulcer that could be treated with medication and that after another EGD in several weeks this should be healed.

Indeed, healing did take place that day!!! Healing on many levels, physical, emotional, and spiritual. God be praised, for God is good, all the time. His grace is never ending. His love unfathomable. His generosity beyond all comprehension!!!

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Thanks be to God!

If you wish to join in this Music Monday visit Shawntele's lovely blog Saved By Grace each Monday for a musical and inspiring start to your week. She hosts Music Monday where we are invited to post a song or video. This is an opportunity to share the music that lift your soul and enlightens your life.