ARE YOU TRICKLISH?

"I saw water trickling." –Ezekiel 47:2 Through Cursillo, charismatic renewal, Christ Renews, Marriage Encounter, retreats, missions, and other renewal programs, the water of the Holy Spirit has trickled into our society. Many, however, are so spiritually dry they mistake the trickle for a river. The trickle is not a river, but it could become a river if it rolls on to the sea. Trickles that go nowhere dry up. Trickles that flow into ponds become stagnant, for a pond has no outlet. Occasionally, the pond becomes agitated. We may even see a miracle or a healing (see Jn 5:7, 9), and call this renewal. Yet the pond soon becomes stagnant again. However, some trickles, driven to share the Gospel in the power of the Spirit, roll on to the sea of God's love. They become rivers whose banks are filled with life and fruit (see Ez 47:7ff). A holy Lent makes the waters of Baptism trickle from the Church. A holy Easter forms the river of Pentecost. Don't be dry or stagnant. "Let him who is thirsty come forward; let all who desire it accept the gift of life-giving water" (Rv 22:17). PRAYER: Father, may I feel compelled to share the Gospel (see 1 Cor 9:16). PROMISE:"Remember, now, you have been cured. Give up your sins so that something worse may not overtake you." –Jn 5:14 PRAISE: Coming to the Lord after a deep conversion brought Michael to an ocean of God's love.

call to repentance

When I consider Jesus' love on the one hand and my own ingratitude on the other, I should like to tell him that if I cannot correspond to his love he should stop loving me; only in this way do I feel less guilty. But this is too terrifying a thing for me, and hence it makes me invariably pray Jesus to continue to love me and to help me himself if I do not succeed in loving him as much as he deserves. -- St. Padre Pio

A LENTEN REFLECTION ON PRAYER

The season of Lent is once again here and as is the custom in our 
Church, Christians everywhere are invited to journey with Christ 
throughout these forty days in preparation for the great celebration of 
Easter.  There are many ways to enter into this season, but one great way 
to embrace the spirit of Lent is through prayer.  Now prayer, of course, 
is not an activity that is unique to Lent, but I believe that prayer 
helps us really to embody what this season is about because of what 
prayer does to us. 

So often, I think that we look upon prayer as something that we 
do because God expects us to do it, or because God wants us to pray.  I 
remember learning long ago that prayer is a way of talking to God, and 
since talking to God helps us to develop our relationship with God, it 
only stands to reason that if we don't pray, we are neglecting our 
relationship with God and thus we are preventing ourselves from growing 
in our relationship with God.
 These are not bad reasons to pray, of course, but it strikes me 
that all these reasons put the effect of our prayer on to God.  That is, 
whether we pray or not will have a direct effect on God such that God 
will get mad, God will be offended or God will feel neglected if we don't 
pray and God will be happy if we do.
 Of course we know that God does not need our prayer, so why 
pray?  What purpose does prayer have if our prayer has no effect on God?  
Well, maybe the importance of prayer is how it effects us.  Maybe prayer, 
like every other aspect of our relationship with God, is there to be of 
benefit to us.  And I would like to suggest that what prayer does to us 
is to subtly and gently remind us that we are NOT at the center of our 
world, ultimately we are not in control and that we need God.
 Prayer can take many forms: formally structured prayer like the 
Our Father or Hail Mary, repetitive prayer like the Rosary, spontaneous, 
stream of consciousness talking to God as we walk along the quad, sung 
prayer, liturgical prayer, silent prayer, prayers of blessing, 
forgiveness, thanksgiving or praise.  However we pray, prayer always 
requires us to "move" outside of ourselves.   To pray means that we 
look to God (in praise, thanksgiving, asking for forgiveness, or 
whatever) and whether we think about it or not, prayer necessarily has 
the effect of acknowledging from deep inside ourselves that we need God.  
Each time that we pray there is a subtle yet constant Grace that changes 
us, that teaches us the humility of our utter reliance on God and that 
prepares us from deep within to let go of our desires to be in control 
and to turn everything over to God. 

To pray enriches us with this Grace.  Not to pray starves us of 
this life-giving gift and weakens us with the shallow illusion that we 
are in control. 

Lent is a season of forty days and the Grace of this season can 
change us; can teach us the humility of our sinfulness in the midst of 
the awesome reality of God's Love.  Lent is a season that can challenge 
us and deepen us  and allow us to see more clearly the priorities that 
are important in life.  It is prayer that can show us the way to knowing 
the full richness that this season offers to us

A Call to Repentance

In the tradition of the church, fasting has been a way of penance and spiritual rebirth.  The motive for fasting is not to punish our bodies as evil, but rather to free ourselves from the control of unrestrained bodily desires.  Pope Paul wrote  Through  corporal fasting  man regains strength and  the wound inflicted on the dignity of our nature by intemperance is cured by the medicine of a salutary abstinence. 
The idea that fasting is a kind of medicine for our soul was shared by St. John Chrysostom.  Our experience of hunger reminds us of our deepest need -- our need for God.  Thus, fasting makes us more alive and more
aware.  We are less easily distracted by sin since we know where our attention belongs.  After Jesus was baptized, he went out into the desert and remained there for forty days without eating.  This forty day fast
enables Him to reject the temptations of Satan and concentrate on His true mission.
The forty days of Lent are a time set aside during our busy year when we  look at our lives and identify those things which we allow to control us.  Today, in a world in which all of our needs are satisfied and in which we are not supposed to know emptiness or hunger, it is easy to become complacent about our real mission.  But, through fasting we realize that God is what is truly important in our lives and are renewed in our mission to live as Christ.

The forty days of Lent are a time set aside during our busy year when we 
look at our lives and identify those things which we allow to control 
us.  Today, in a world in which all of our needs are satisfied and in 
which we are not supposed to know emptiness or hunger, it is easy to 
become complacent about our real mission.  But, through fasting we 
realize that God is what is truly important in our lives and are renewed 
in our mission to live as Christ.

What are the origins of Lent? Did the Church always have this time before Easter?

Lent is a special time of prayer, penance, sacrifice and good works in preparation of the celebration of Easter. In the desire to renew the liturgical practices of the Church, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican Council II stated, "The two elements which are especially characteristic of Lent -- the recalling of baptism or the preparation for it, and penance -- should be given greater emphasis in the liturgy and in liturgical catechesis. It is by means of them that the Church prepares the faithful for the celebration of Easter, while they hear God's word more frequently and devote more time to prayer" (no. 109). The word Lent itself is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words lencten, meaning "Spring," and lenctentid, which literally means not only "Springtide" but also was the word for "March," the month in which the majority of Lent falls.

Since the earliest times of the Church, there is evidence of some kind of Lenten preparation for Easter. For instance, St. Irenaeus (d. 203) wrote to Pope St. Victor I, commenting on the celebration of Easter and the differences between practices in the East and the West: "The dispute is not only about the day, but also about the actual character of the fast. Some think that they ought to fast for one day, some for two, others for still more; some make their 'day' last 40 hours on end. Such variation in the observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers" (Eusebius, History of the Church, V, 24). When Rufinus translated this passage from Greek into Latin, the punctuation made between "40" and "hours" made the meaning to appear to be "40 days, twenty-four hours a day." The importance of the passage, nevertheless, remains that since the time of "our forefathers" -- always an expression for the apostles -- a 40-day period of Lenten preparation existed. However, the actual practices and duration of Lent were still not homogenous throughout the Church.

Lent becomes more regularized after the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313. The Council of Nicea (325), in its disciplinary canons, noted that two provincial synods should be held each year, "one before the 40 days of Lent." St. Athanasius (d. 373) in this "Festal Letters" implored his congregation to make a 40-day fast prior to the more intense fasting of Holy Week. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386) in his Catechectical Lectures, which are the paradigm for our current RCIA programs, had 18 pre-baptismal instructions given to the catechumens during Lent. St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) in his series of "Festal Letters" also noted the practices and duration of Lent, emphasizing the 40-day period of fasting. Finally, Pope St. Leo (d. 461) preached that the faithful must "fulfill with their fasts the Apostolic institution of the 40 days," again noting the apostolic origins of Lent. One can safely conclude that by the end of the fourth century, the 40-day period of Easter preparation known as Lent existed, and that prayer and fasting constituted its primary spiritual exercises.

Of course, the number "40" has always had special spiritual significance regarding preparation. On Mount Sinai, preparing to receive the Ten Commandments, "Moses stayed there with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights, without eating any food or drinking any water" (Ex 34:28). Elijah walked "40 days and 40 nights" to the mountain of the Lord, Mount Horeb (another name for Sinai) (I Kgs 19:8). Most importantly, Jesus fasted and prayed for "40 days and 40 nights" in the desert before He began His public ministry (Mt 4:2).

Once the 40 days of Lent were established, the next development concerned how much fasting was to be done. In Jerusalem, for instance, people fasted for 40 days, Monday through Friday, but not on Saturday or Sunday, thereby making Lent last for eight weeks. In Rome and in the West, people fasted for six weeks, Monday through Saturday, thereby making Lent last for six weeks. Eventually, the practice prevailed of fasting for six days a week over the course of six weeks, and Ash Wednesday was instituted to bring the number of fast days before Easter to 40. The rules of fasting varied. First, some areas of the Church abstained from all forms of meat and animal products, while others made exceptions for food like fish. For example, Pope St. Gregory (d. 604), writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury, issued the following rule: "We abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese and eggs."

Nevertheless, I was always taught, "If you gave something up for the Lord, tough it out. Don't act like a Pharisee looking for a loophole."

Second, the general rule was for a person to have one meal a day, in the evening or at 3 p.m.

These Lenten fasting rules also evolved. Eventually, a smaller repast was allowed during the day to keep up one's strength from manual labor. Eating fish was allowed, and later eating meat was also allowed through the week except on Ash Wednesday and Friday. Dispensations were given for eating dairy products if a pious work was performed, and eventually this rule was relaxed totally. (However, the abstinence from even dairy products led to the practice of blessing Easter eggs and eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.)

Over the years, modifications have been made to the Lenten observances, making our practices not only simple but also easy. Ash Wednesday still marks the beginning of Lent, which lasts for 40 days, not including Sundays. The present fasting and abstinence laws are very simple: On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the faithful fast (having only one full meal a day and smaller snacks to keep up one's strength) and abstain from meat; on the other Fridays of Lent, the faithful abstain from meat. People are still encouraged "to give up something" for Lent as a sacrifice. (An interesting note is that technically on Sundays and solemnities like St. Joseph's Day (March 19) and the Annunciation (March 25), one is exempt and can partake of whatever has been offered up for Lent.

Nevertheless, I was always taught, "If you gave something up for the Lord, tough it out. Don't act like a Pharisee looking for a loophole." Moreover, an emphasis must be placed on performing spiritual works, like attending the Stations of the Cross, attending Mass, making a weekly holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, taking time for personal prayer and spiritual reading and most especially making a good confession and receiving sacramental absolution. Although the practices may have evolved over the centuries, the focus remains the same: to repent of sin, to renew our faith and to prepare to celebrate joyfully the mysteries of our salvation.

culled from http://www.catholiceducation.org