Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Lenten Resolutions
In the spirit of the upcoming Lenten season, I've decided to practice these five acts of penance/sacrifice:-
- Go bald; more about this in due time.
- Recite the chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Stations of the Cross every Friday.
- Visit St. Joseph's (BT) Mount Calvarly at least once for the candle light procession; more about this in due time too.
- Refrain from driving on Mondays to Wednesdays.
- Observe fast for the entire duration of Lent.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Our Lenten Worship: The Prayer of St Ephrem
I always recite the following prayer before saying my Office. I didn't know that the Byzantines say it during Lent, Constatine has more...
This prayer is considered, in the Byzantine tradition, to be the most succinct summation of the spirit of Great Lent and is hence the Lenten prayer of the highest quality, prayed during all Lenten weekday services, and many more times in private.
O Lord, and Master of my life,
give me not the spirit of slothfulness, faint-heartedness,
lust of power, and vain talking;
but instead grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of integrity,
humility, patience and love;
O Lord and King, grant that I may see my own
faults, and not judge my brother,
for You are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The priest recites this prayer audibly, unlike most prayers offered aloud in our services. Customarily, we make prostrations after each clause, three in all. The prayer is repeated at virtually every service on the weekdays of Lent. We (or rather, the pious among us) say this prayer several times a day, wherever we happen to be.
The prayer begins with a reaffirmation of our acceptance of God as our Lord and Master over our entire life, all that we are, have and do:
"O Lord, and Master of my life"
At the same time, we come to Him acknowledging our sinfulness and the great sins to which all humanity is inclined as a result of our fallen state - sins that lead us to commit all others, in fact:
"the spirit of slothfulness, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and vain talking"
Slothfulness - i.e. laziness! The Christian life is an effort (which does not mean to say we cannot enjoy life). Christ has promised to give us joy, but joy - real joy - has nothing in common with laziness. Laziness steals our time and gives no joy, one discovers only one has done nothing. Exercise is a good cure for laziness - and Lent is a spiritual exercise.
Being faint-hearted is to ask "Why should we try? What for? We will only fail, so why make the effort?". It is a notion that we cannot accomplish anything. God does not demand success; God is always there to pick us up with His love when we fail.
Lust of power is not only something that characterizes military dictators and control freaks but it is also the foundation of "spiritual independence" to which it ultimately leads. The way of humility and obedience is based on our sense of "need" for God, our dependence on Him and the means He has placed at our disposal to achieve union with Him, by means of and in His Church.
Vain talking - the Spiritual Fathers of the Philokalia, the great teachers of the spiritual way rooted in the constant invocation of the Name of our Lord Jesus, take extra care to warn us of this sin! The harm done to individuals, families and communities by foolish words, often spoken in haste, is countless. Christ in the Gospels warned the people of His day who were very concerned with the sins committed by what went into the mouth that what comes OUT of the mouth is what should be guarded against.
All four of these sins represent the four corners, so to speak, of the fundamental "window" that leads us into sin and spiritual tragedy.
We also ask for specific virtues:
"the spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love"
As God's servants, we ask God to reflect in us His Grace through the virtues that run counter to the four vices we enumerated in the first verse.
Integrity is the virtue by which we recognise God's plan for us and do our best to live in accordance with that plan.
We often think of "humility" as the opposite to integrity. Genuine humility is not at all undignified - humility is freedom from illusion. Humility is being prudent. Humility is being clear-sighted. Humility is ultimately realizing that we are called to sanctification and Divinization in Christ, as He demonstrated on Mount Tabor.
Patience comes from the Latin "patient" - "to suffer". It also means not losing hope that God will answer us and keep His Promises to us, no matter what befalls us now. Suffering, in fact, far from being something to be shunned, is an experience that teaches us how truly dependent we are on God and His Mercy.
We ask for the gift of real, authentic love. Christian love is not a sentiment nor an emotion - it is an act of the will, a virtue. It is a gift of God's grace, but we must make the effort to exercise that gift of grace.
After praying for these 4 virtues, we make two more requests:
"grant that I may see my own faults, and not judge my brother"
We can only truly answer for our own sinfulness, for our own intentions. Only God may judge others. This is why we never say, in public prayer, "have mercy on us sinners" but only "have mercy on me a sinner".
The Bible asks us, "who are you that you should judge another man's servant? (Romans 14:4)" Each of us shall answer to the Lord; God forbid that we should judge each other. Christ warns us, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged! (Matthew 7:2)"
Instead of judging, let us pray to God to make us always merciful, as He is merciful to us.
O Lord, and Master of my life,
give me not the spirit of slothfulness, faint-heartedness,
lust of power, and vain talking;
but instead grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of integrity,
humility, patience and love;
O Lord and King, grant that I may see my own
faults, and not judge my brother,
for You are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The priest recites this prayer audibly, unlike most prayers offered aloud in our services. Customarily, we make prostrations after each clause, three in all. The prayer is repeated at virtually every service on the weekdays of Lent. We (or rather, the pious among us) say this prayer several times a day, wherever we happen to be.
The prayer begins with a reaffirmation of our acceptance of God as our Lord and Master over our entire life, all that we are, have and do:
"O Lord, and Master of my life"
At the same time, we come to Him acknowledging our sinfulness and the great sins to which all humanity is inclined as a result of our fallen state - sins that lead us to commit all others, in fact:
"the spirit of slothfulness, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and vain talking"
Slothfulness - i.e. laziness! The Christian life is an effort (which does not mean to say we cannot enjoy life). Christ has promised to give us joy, but joy - real joy - has nothing in common with laziness. Laziness steals our time and gives no joy, one discovers only one has done nothing. Exercise is a good cure for laziness - and Lent is a spiritual exercise.
Being faint-hearted is to ask "Why should we try? What for? We will only fail, so why make the effort?". It is a notion that we cannot accomplish anything. God does not demand success; God is always there to pick us up with His love when we fail.
Lust of power is not only something that characterizes military dictators and control freaks but it is also the foundation of "spiritual independence" to which it ultimately leads. The way of humility and obedience is based on our sense of "need" for God, our dependence on Him and the means He has placed at our disposal to achieve union with Him, by means of and in His Church.
Vain talking - the Spiritual Fathers of the Philokalia, the great teachers of the spiritual way rooted in the constant invocation of the Name of our Lord Jesus, take extra care to warn us of this sin! The harm done to individuals, families and communities by foolish words, often spoken in haste, is countless. Christ in the Gospels warned the people of His day who were very concerned with the sins committed by what went into the mouth that what comes OUT of the mouth is what should be guarded against.
All four of these sins represent the four corners, so to speak, of the fundamental "window" that leads us into sin and spiritual tragedy.
We also ask for specific virtues:
"the spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love"
As God's servants, we ask God to reflect in us His Grace through the virtues that run counter to the four vices we enumerated in the first verse.
Integrity is the virtue by which we recognise God's plan for us and do our best to live in accordance with that plan.
We often think of "humility" as the opposite to integrity. Genuine humility is not at all undignified - humility is freedom from illusion. Humility is being prudent. Humility is being clear-sighted. Humility is ultimately realizing that we are called to sanctification and Divinization in Christ, as He demonstrated on Mount Tabor.
Patience comes from the Latin "patient" - "to suffer". It also means not losing hope that God will answer us and keep His Promises to us, no matter what befalls us now. Suffering, in fact, far from being something to be shunned, is an experience that teaches us how truly dependent we are on God and His Mercy.
We ask for the gift of real, authentic love. Christian love is not a sentiment nor an emotion - it is an act of the will, a virtue. It is a gift of God's grace, but we must make the effort to exercise that gift of grace.
After praying for these 4 virtues, we make two more requests:
"grant that I may see my own faults, and not judge my brother"
We can only truly answer for our own sinfulness, for our own intentions. Only God may judge others. This is why we never say, in public prayer, "have mercy on us sinners" but only "have mercy on me a sinner".
The Bible asks us, "who are you that you should judge another man's servant? (Romans 14:4)" Each of us shall answer to the Lord; God forbid that we should judge each other. Christ warns us, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged! (Matthew 7:2)"
Instead of judging, let us pray to God to make us always merciful, as He is merciful to us.
Labels: Lent, Orthodox, Prayer, Spirituality
Giving and Commitment
(By Rev. Fr. Marcial Maciel, LC)
Look at Christ on the Cross and learn from him what it means truly to love. He did not redeem us with promises, feelings of compassion or desires to give himself, or with his high-sounding words; and he could have done so, since he was God. But, since he loved us and love is gift without limits, he willed to show us his love by loving us with concrete acts: becoming man, living and suffering our human condition, giving himself out of love for his Father and each one of us, obeying, forgiving, turning the other cheek, enduring terrible humiliations in silence, offering his back to the fury of the whip, opening his hands to be pierced ... out of love for me, to save me.
Otherwise, where else would the martyrs have found the courage to die with pardon on their lips and praising God if they did not have before them the words and example of Christ’s death? What would happen to the dying and the sick if in the midst of their suffering they could not clasp the crucifix in their hands? How could we fulfill God’s will in our daily lives, especially when it causes our hearts to bleed, if Christ in Gethsemane had preferred his will to his Father’s, without his It is consummated from the Cross (John 19:30)?
How easily we deceive ourselves thinking that we love God when in reality we take love for an emotion, a moment of psychological freedom or an occasional burst of generosity! There is so much egoism disguised as love! So when you want to know if you really and truly love, look at Christ crucified. If your love is like his, that is, total self-giving with concrete deeds, then your love is authentic, and you are real Christians. It might well be that you don’t have lots of feelings and emotions, that at times your love stands on the rock of a faith stripped of all human consolation, but it is love because there is giving and commitment.
Labels: Lent, Spirituality
Friday, March 2, 2007
Fasting vs. dieting
Friday after Ash Wednesday: Isa 58.1-9 and Matthew 9.14-15
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory and Church of the Incarnation
PODCAST!
[NB. The preacher preaches to himself first…]
More on fasting, uh? Well, it’s only right since it is Lent and all. But you’d think that we would have the whole fasting/contrite heart thing down by now, wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s not a difficult concept. It’s not like trying to grasp double predestination or the state of the soul before the general resurrection or the mystery of the theological Trinity. It’s just fasting. Don’t eat as much as you usually do and do this because it helps you to stay focused on what’s important in your growth in holiness: your total, undiluted, raw dependence on God for absolutely everything. Of course, we also fast to show honor, obedience, the strength of a beggar’s heart, humility in need, gratitude in abundance, sorrow and grief, solidarity with the suffering, a heart turned from sin and rushing to the Lord in tears.
Brothers and sisters, fasting w/o true contrition and true repentance is called Dieting. And the Lord wants us to understand the difference between the prophetic act of fasting and the often-times vain act of dieting. The Lord tells the prophet Isaiah to say to us: “Would that today—Friday, February 23, 2007—would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!” You bow your head like a reed and slob around all day in sackcloth and ashes! “Is this the manner of fasting I wish […] Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” So how do you fast today so as to make your voice heard on high? Isaiah cries out full-throated and unsparingly, like a trumpet blast: release those who have been imprisoned unjustly! Untie their yokes. Set free the oppressed. Share your bread with the hungry. Shelter the homeless. Clothe the naked. Help your own. Fast as the Lord wants you to fast! And your innocent verdict will go before you and God’s glory will come behind you and when you call on His name for help, He will say, “Here I am!”
So, will you fast or will you diet? Jesus says that we cannot fast so long as the Bridegroom is with us. Is he with us? Well, no. He departed for the throne and sent us his Holy Spirit. So, we can fast and mourn his absence. However, he’s with us now. Present because we are more than two and gathered in his name. He’s fully present in the Eucharist. So, we cannot fast or mourn. The Bridegroom has not been taken from us! Isn’t this the Christian life exactly? We are called to be prophetic witnesses, to stand up and shout out the truth of the gospel victory of sin and death. Yes, Christ is gone from us. And no, he is here. The battle is won and it is not yet fought. This is what it means to live in the meantime of God’s plan for us: we free the unjustly imprisoned now b/c they have all been freed by Christ in his victory. Their imprisonment is doubly unjust.
Dieting will not help them. Dieting will break no yokes, cancel no debts, fill no empty stomachs, nor will dieting free anyone from Satan. In fact, Satan counts on us spending this Lenten season dieting. It’s his best time of year for ripe self-righteousness and hypocrisy. John’s disciples and the Pharisees are worried about Jesus’ liberal band of party animals—why aren’t they fasting like we do?! Jesus says, in effect, “Don’t worry. They are my disciples and they will fast when I am gone.” We know what that means; what it means for his friends to drink his cup, to carry his cross, to die preaching and teaching the Good News of God’s mercy. Our Father wants a humble and contrite heart. Not a diet plan. He wants obedience and service. Not mumbled prayers and luke-warm sentiments. He wants laborers for his Lenten and His Easter fields. Not religious dilettantes and mystic wannabes.
Take your diet. Turn your heart and mind to the service of God in humility. And change that diet into a fast worthy of your soul! Thirty-eight days and counting...and the cup is yours is bear...
Thursday, February 22, 2007
LENT: A Call To Conversion
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lenten Background MIDI
I've changed the background MIDI in view of the Holy Season of Lent. Enjoy!Labels: Lent, Miscellaneous, Music
Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return
Here's a photo which I took this evening before Ash Wednesday Mass.I burnt the last of previous year's palm leaves left behind by some members of the congregation.
Lent preparation for Lent begins today. It includes the three Sundays called respectively Septuagesima (50), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (70). They were so named because in the early days of Christianity many communities began the fast 50, 60 or 70 days before Easter. In order not to have to fast every day of the forty.
Today- Ash Wednesday- is the Wednesday after Quinquagesima. The name Ash Wednesday is derived from the imposition of Ashes upon the foreheads of the faithful. On this day- Ash Wednesday- the season of Lent commences; it is 46 days before Easter; thus the number of days is completed without the six Sundays, on which we do not fast.
During Lent the public life of Our Lord Jesus Christ is set before us, His previous fast, His Passion and death. The 40 days which intervene before the ascension represent the 40 days He spent on earth after His resurrection. (Traditionally, the 3 days before the Ascension are Rogation days; on these processions are held.)
This Lent let us obtain actual graces by performing good works, especially by prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds; and more especially by the use of the means of grace provided by the Church, by hearing Holy Mass and worthy reception of the sacraments.
God's grace cannot be obtained by our own good works alone, otherwise it would not be grace (Rom 11:6), yet these good works are necessary, for, as St. Augustine says, "God, Who created us without our co-opertation will need not save us without our co-operation." Not according to the works we have done but out of His mercy has God saved us (Tit 3:5). Graces are given to us by the Holy Ghost as He wills, with regard however to the preparation and co-operation of the individual (Trent 6,7). Hence it is that a man receives more actual grace as he is richer in good works. Some efficacious prayers include prayes to the Holy Ghost and to the Mother of God as we know that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him and that Mary is "full of grace", and "the dispenser of all graces." St. Alphonsus, founder of the Order of the Holy Redeemer reminds saying, "Let no one consider this last title extravagent, for the greatest of Saints have so spoken of her, and the Saints, as we know, were inspired by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth."
Some other means of confering many graces include prayer to the Blessed Sacrament and the mortification of the senses. The latter (found in the conduct of the Apostles during the time preceeding Pentecost) is a good example of drawing down grace.
Have a Holy Lenten Season!
Copiosa apud eum redemptio,
Paul D. Molina
Ash Wednesday '07
Labels: Catholic Belief, Lent, Photos, Spirituality
Monday, February 19, 2007
Holy Father's Lenten Message 2007
(By H.H. Pope Benedict XVI)
“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37). This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross, consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn 19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze, therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God. In the Encyclical Deus caritas est, I dwelt upon this theme of love, highlighting its two fundamental forms: agape and eros.
God’s love: agape and eros
The term agape, which appears many times in the New Testament, indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved. The love with which God surrounds us is undoubtedly agape. Indeed, can man give to God some good that He does not already possess? All that the human creature is and has is divine gift. It is the creature then, who is in need of God in everything. But God’s love is also eros. In the Old Testament, the Creator of the universe manifests toward the people whom He has chosen as His own a predilection that transcends every human motivation. The prophet Hosea expresses this divine passion with daring images such as the love of a man for an adulterous woman (cf. 3:1-3). For his part, Ezekiel, speaking of God’s relationship with the people of Israel, is not afraid to use strong and passionate language (cf. 16:1-22). These biblical texts indicate that eros is part of God’s very heart: the Almighty awaits the “yes” of His creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride. Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies of the Evil One, rejected God’s love in the illusion of a self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn 3:1-7). Turning in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God Himself, and became the first of “those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb 2:15). God, however, did not give up. On the contrary, man’s “no” was the decisive impulse that moved Him to manifest His love in all of its redeeming strength.
The Cross reveals the fullness of God’s love
It is in the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the heavenly Father’s mercy is revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price: the blood of His only begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam. One could very well assert, therefore, together with Saint Maximus the Confessor, that Christ “died, if one could say so, divinely, because He died freely” (Ambigua, 91, 1956). On the Cross, God’s eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed – as Pseudo-Dionysius expresses it – that force “that does not allow the lover to remain in himself but moves him to become one with the beloved” (De divinis nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to make Himself one with us even to the point of suffering as His own the consequences of our offences?
“Him whom they have pierced”
Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognized Jesus as “Lord and God” when he put his hand into the wound of His side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape. In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him. Accepting His love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to Himself” in order to unite Himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with His own love.
Blood and water
“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced.” Let us look with trust at the pierced side of Jesus from which flow “blood and water” (Jn 19:34)! The Fathers of the Church considered these elements as symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love. In the Lenten journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father (cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Catecheses, 3,14ff). Blood, symbol of the love of the Good Shepherd, flows into us especially in the Eucharistic mystery: “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation … we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, 13). Let us live Lent then, as a “Eucharistic” time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it around us with every word and deed. Contemplating “Him whom they have pierced” moves us in this way to open our hearts to others, recognizing the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people. May Lent be for every Christian a renewed experience of God’s love given to us in Christ, a love that each day we, in turn, must “regive” to our neighbour, especially to the one who suffers most and is in need. Only in this way will we be able to participate fully in the joy of Easter. May Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love, guide us in this Lenten journey, a journey of authentic conversion to the love of Christ. I wish you, dear brothers and sisters, a fruitful Lenten journey, imparting with affection to all of you, a special Apostolic Blessing.
Labels: Holy Father, Homily, Lent, Spirituality
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Pastoral Letter of Exhortation from Archbishop Nicholas Chia
BE CONVERTED AND believe in the Gospel (Mk 1:15). This command of Jesus rings out ever more strongly today, inviting man to conversion. This inner attitude of conversion, that is the condemnation of and detachment from sin and a striving towards God, is accompanied also by external acts of penitential practices.
The interior and religious character of penance neither excludes nor lessens in any way the external practice of this virtue. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance. Even in biblical times we see people doing some form of penance as a sign of sorrow for their sin. It is indeed a religious, personal act which has as its aim, love and surrender to God. There is no lack of examples in Scriptures also of a social or collective awareness of sin.
Reaffirming this necessity, the church continues to seek - beyond fast and abstinence - new expressions of penance, more suitable for the times. Lent remains the pre-eminent Penitential season. All Fridays are days of penance because each Friday recalls the crucifixion of Our Lord. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday remain days of fast and abstinence.
Fasting means that the amount of food we eat is considerably reduced. All Christians from the age of 18 to the beginning of 60 are bound by the law of abstinence (C. 1252). However our penance cannot be restricted to refraining from meat on Fridays.
In order that we appreciate the meaning of penance more deeply, any of the following practices may also be adopted to fulfil the obligation of penance (on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities):
1) By abstaining from meat and having simple meals;
2) By abstaining from alcoholic drink, smoking or some form of amusement;
3) By making the special effort involved in family prayer, taking part in the Mass, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament or a more attentive reading of the Bible, visiting the Blessed Sacrament or praying the Stations of the Cross;
4) By fasting from all food for a longer period than usual and perhaps by giving what is saved in this way to the needy at home and abroad; and
5) By making a special effort to spend time with or help somebody who is poor, sick, old or lonely.
The obligation to do penance every Friday remains an essential part of our Christian life. However, the manner we do it can take a different form every Friday. It is hoped that all the faithful of this region may make that sincere effort in memory of the Passion and Death of our Lord.
May this Lenten Season be a special time of grace for all of us. May we learn to die to ourselves so that we will rise with Christ at Easter!
Yours devotedly in Christ,
Archbishop Nicholas Chia
Labels: Catholic Belief, Lent, Open Letter, Spirituality
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