Lent is a time of spiritual growth and spiritual challenges. Throughout this season we are called to pray, fast, and give alms. While many people give up things throughout the season of Lent, other people assume additional spiritual practices like attending the Stations of the Cross or volunteering. One of my seminary classmates loved to smoke his cigarettes but each Lent he would give up smoking. For the rest of us, it seemed like we carried his penance. Sometimes I prayed that he would break his Lenten resolution because he was grouchy and unbearable. When Easter arrived, my classmate would stand outside smoking a carton of cigarettes. Lent is a time for us to intentionally do what we should be doing all the time. At the same time, it is an opportunity for us to evaluate who we are and where we hope to be. It is a time for God’s grace to transform our weakness so that we can be temples of the Holy Spirit. May these forty days help us make lasting changes we can be proud of. May it also be a time for us to receive the mercy and forgiveness of God, especially present in the sacrament of reconciliation.
God save me from my god. This seems like a strange prayer, but it is an important one. Each of us has an idea of what God is like. Our idea of God could be an old man sitting on a cloud or Aristotle’s unmoved mover who gazes only on himself, or something in between these extremes. We all need images of God, but our own images are only partial glimpses of God’s true reality. According to Aquinas, we know more about what God is not, than what God is. God is not evil, God is not material, God is not unjust, God is not a table, and the list of what God is not can go on and on. We cannot comprehend what God is because God is infinite. Moreover, Scripture testifies that God is love; while we have some understanding of what human love is, we lack understanding of what perfect, infinite, and complete divine love is. We have a glimpse of this love when Jesus gave his life for each of us on the cross. We pray to God to remove our own finite understanding so that we can glimpse the fullness of his reality in heaven.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2011
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