WE OPEN GOD'S GIFT

         GOD IS NOW PRESENTING HIS GIFT TO US: THE HOLY GIFT                                                                                                 OF LENT. 

       THE WRAPPING PAPER OF HIS GIFT MAY DISGUISE THE ETERNAL                                                                             TREASURES INSIDE.

           

    CHRIST JESUS IS OUR DESIRE, OUR JOURNEY, OUR DESTINATION.

 

      ON ASH WEDNESDAY, WE STAND AT HIS ALTAR AND ADORN OUR                                       

                    FOREHEADS WITH HIS PREFERRED GARMENT, 

                 THE GARMENT THAT THEY CAST LOTS FOR (MT 27:35)...

                               THE  GARMENT OF HIS HUMILITY. 

              

     OUR ASHES PROCLAIM OUR FINITENESS BEFORE OUR INFINITE GOD.

        

  HUMILITY ABSORBS AND DESTROYS SIN. HUMILITY HAS A NAME.  IN THE HUMBLE     

    ACCEPTANCE  OF OUR ASHES, WE COVER OURSELVES WITH HIS GARMENT. 

            THE PRIDE OF OUR ORIGINAL SIN TURNS TO DUST ON OUR FOREHEAD.   

                   

    THE FATHER SEES AND LOVES IN US WHAT HE SAW AND LOVED IN HIS SON.

                       HE SEES THE ONE TO WHOM HIS SON GAVE, NOT 

                                      JUST HIS SHIRT, BUT HIS COAT AS WELL (MATTHEW 5:40).

     HIS NAKED BODY ON THE CROSS REVEALS SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY                                                              OF THE TOTALITY OF HIS GIFT.

                                             HE WANTS TO GIVE US 

                                                  HIS ALL, TO EMPTY 

                                                     HIMSELF INTO

                                                       US,TO MAKE

                                                      US HIS EQUAL.

                               

                                           HOW CAN WE FIND HIM? 

                              

 WE BEGIN OUR JOURNEY OF LENT BY JOINING ST ANSELM IN HIS CALL TO                                                                         INTERIOR SILENCE.

                       "Longing to see God"                 "Proslogion" of St Anselm -  

                                    "Flee your preoccupations for a little while. Hide

yourself for a time from your turbulent thoughts. Cast aside, now,

your heavy responsibilities and put off your burdensome burden.

Make a little space free for God; and rest for a little time in him.

Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep

only thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking Him.

Close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! 

Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek.

And come you now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how

it may seek you, where and how it may find you.

Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I see

you. You have made me and renewed me, you have given me all the

good things that I have, and I have not yet met you. I was created to

see you, and I have not yet done the thing for which I was made.

When will you enlighten my eyes, and show me your face?

When will you restore yourself to me?

Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you, for

I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you reveal

yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me long for you in seeking;

let me find you by loving you and love you in the act of finding you."

Anna Rae-Kelly OCDS
www.annaprae.com

God's Gift of Lent Draws Closer

St. John of the Cross reminds us that God loves us so deeply that He gives Himself to us as completely or as little as we allow. He desires to empty Himself into our soul, God, Creator, Redeemer, Healer, Teacher, Glorious Lord because He wants to make us His equal. 

Each one of us is so unique, from our eye color to our height, to our odd little personality quirks. And God adapts Himself to our uniqueness, works with loving tenderness and gratitude and begins to transform us. If we will it, our behavior, our countenance begins to reflect the Owner of all souls, the Giver of all life, the All in all. 

      

We grow to be spiritually DNA one with Him. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon you."

But it's an even deeper awe, an awe that stuns us, that fills us when we receive Him in Holy Communion. In accepting and receiving the Sacred Host, we become physically DNA One With Him. His Flesh has become our flesh, His Blood courses through our veins, His Soul lifts ours to untold heights and depths, His Divinity is ours.

All time, God's human time and Divine Time, is ours. Our great great grandparents, our great grandchildren not yet born, our suffering loved ones who have separated themselves from us, all held in God's great and loving Heart, all now ours too. All sinners of all time are ours, the Mother of God is ours, Christ is ours and He is for us. 

Through Him, in this most mystical and holy Sacrament of Union, we pray for them all... 

we say Thank You to God for the grandparents who prayed us into this moment of Union; 

we offer to accept every discomfort and trial that He may permit us to suffer and we offer them lovingly for the souls of our great grandchildren who will never meet us in person; 

we give Him our separated loved ones and promise to do all we can to reconcile them; 

we offer to pray every day and every night for all those who don't pray and won't do penance; and 

we raise our spiritual arms in utter joy as we silently sing our gratitude for our Savior Lord Who is All in all and invites us to be for All in all with Him in the Father as we sup at the Spirit's ocean of love.

                    And we have not yet managed to return to our pew.

                       

In this most Holy Sacrament of Communion, God makes us His equal. Angels prostrate themselves before us as we try to return to our seat, carrying the Divine. We have become His living Tabernacle. Within our being, the Father communes with Son Who has poured Himself into us. Therefore, Father is dialoguing with us. Spirit Lord calls us to sip at Their waterfall of mercy. 

We are in the Trinity and They in us, for a brief time after we have received Holy Communion.

      Our Lenten gift of ourselves will allow our spiritual ears to be refined to hear them speak.

If we are stumbling along toward Ash Wednesday on our Lenten journey, we may be wondering if our sacrifices of self-giving are worth the discomfort, wondering if we should stop praying because we seem to be becoming more impatient when we thought we'd be becoming more saintly, if we're growing in a self-knowledge that is showing a pretty ugly side of self and all our dross seems to be rising to the surface....if all of this and much more is beginning to happen, we are being deeply blessed because Spirit Lord is drawing us inward where God dwells in our hurting soul. And His Light is piercing our darkness and our spiritual eyes are seeing some dark and cobwebbed corners of our soul. God, the Divine Surgeon is at work within us. He is lovingly wounding us with His scalpel which cauterizes and heals, both at the same time.  He is drawing us closer to Himself. Our prayer holds our permission for him to enter. He Himself is our setting out, our journey, our Companion at every step on our journey, our destination, our Goal.. He will never leave us in our Lenten  purification. He cannot abandon Himself. 

                          

                           "God wants to make us His equal."

His Desire becomes our own. How can we meet our Maker, see Him, hear, find Him in our silent, hidden moments with Him? 

"Listen! My beloved approaches. Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills..."(Song of Solomon 2:8)

If we feel like this is a journey that's far beyond us, that we can barely get through the struggles of our days and nights, that our ability to love is less than an ocean droplet, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face encourages us beyond our feelings...

                   "O, what a miracle. My feeble love enthralls You."

So we continue on our journey toward our Lenten transformation into Himself. We sit with Him at His worst times. 

                    "... behold Him on the way to the garden... or behold Him bound to the column... 

                      or behold Him burdened with the cross... He will look at you with those eyes 

                      so beautiful and compassionate... merely because you turn your head to look 

                      at Him” (Teresa of Jesus).

                      And we discover that in His worst times He is holding our own.