LENT

By -

Mardi Gras came and went and I did not catch one parade or one bead. The only beads I clutched were the rosary beads I pray during my morning jog around the park.

Lent began today with ashes on the forehead and forty days of fasting...I'm abstaining from my favorite-Smucker's Goober Grape/Strawberry. In case you haven't feasted upon this delectable delight...It's soft peanut butter swirled with jelly. I decided to throw in my other tasty discovery, "Peanut Butter and Company"-White Chocolate Wonderful...Then I decided to add all peanut butter. No shades of grey, no cheating for the next month-not even on Sundays. Some say Sundays are for R and R-but as I told Jacob, whose giving up ice cream-we're hardliners...Falling off the wagon for even one day-tempts the taste buds, distorts the will and makes the return ride a little more difficult.

Zachary, who is on "Mardi Gras" vacation gave up video games...No small feat for an 11 year old...Ben stopped playing his I-phone solitaire...Which he tells me is addictive...Go figure!

I guess a shrink could do a psychological profile that would blow our minds...But really Lent is all about sacrifice and discipline...Letting go of something we want-and letting God give us a supernatural replacement for our temptations, so that we do not settle for less..A quick fix, an unhealthy relationship or any number of convenient choices.

During Lent we can rediscover the authentic answers to the inner desires of our heart and soul...We see the solution to all our struggles and sorrows in the mystery of Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice, his life.

By making the radical choice, to remove the temptation, we come face to face with the truth and the eternal freedom that follows.

Forty days of freedom that could last a lifetime!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUBLIME AUDACITY!

By -
Image
I have all the signs and symptoms of something I just learned about today...Sublime Audacity. That's right...I have the audacity to believe-that anything is possible-anything at all-with God. In fact, I believe that there is one cure for all the world's ills...and that cure rests with -and in God. In a world of material wealth, individual desires and carefully orchestrated managed care...When people search the world over for the answers that never come, the healings that rarely happen and the hope that always gets dashed by the next person...I believe that there is only one steady stream of consciousness that always gets it right...and that is God. I've personally experienced it time and again and every time I look elsewhere or seek some other solution, I always come crawling back to the staying power of my higher power...Because let's face it...Once we have the audacity to tell anyone-anyone at all that God is responsible for all the good in our lives or the Love that
Read more

OUR LADY OF JOY, HANCEVILLE ALABAMA

By -
Image
High atop a hill in Hanceville Alabama, broken hearts are being healed and hope is being restored. Our Lady of Joyful Hope is a community of young men who are finding new freedom through a life of authentic truth. Once lost in the darkness of addiction they are now living in the light of Christ who is transforming them from the inside out...And their families, if they are open and willing, are being transformed right alongside them. Recently, I spent three days with this community, listening to the young men, their parents and to the foundress, Mother Elvira, who flew in from Italy for the anointing of the new community house and the celebration that followed. Mother Elvira's life story is on par with Mother Teresa. She is an Italian nun who heard the call from God to snatch souls from Satan by delivering young men and women from the demonic grip of addiction. She gave up everything familiar, walked straight into the wilderness and wound up becoming a living legacy for desperate fa
Read more

HRUSHIV UKRAINE: APPARITIONS OF THE BLESSED MOTHER

By -
Image
Twenty four years ago today, April 27, 1987 the Blessed Mother allegedly appeared in Hrushiv Ukraine with a warning and words of consolation. She came on the Feast of the Ascension, exactly one year after the nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl saying "Do not forget those who have died...Chernobyl is a reminder and a sign for the whole world." In 1990 while producing a television documentary in Ukraine, I visited Hrushi and interviewed a handful of people who had witnessed the apparition above the church of the Holy Trinity. In all, some five hundred thousand witnesses claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary over a four month period. Mary apparently told them she came to thank the Ukrainian people because they had suffered so much at the hands of a raging lion who had been prowling around seeking whom he could devour. She said their suffering would come to an end and one day Ukraine would become an independent state. She then urged disciplined, Christian fortitude, "
Read more