Lent: Fuel Up for the Rest of the Year
Ash Wednesday will soon be here, bringing us into the Lenten season.Traditionally, Catholics have practiced prayer, fasting, penance, and almsgiving during Lent as ways to grow closer to Christ, and better model their lives after him. Will this Lent be a fruitful one for you?
St. Francis de Sales writes,
“Lent is the autumn of the spiritual life during which we gather fruit to keep us going for the rest of the year. Enrich yourselves with these treasures, which nobody can take away from you and which cannot be destroyed. I am accustomed to say that we will not spend Lent well unless we are determined to make the most of it. Let us, therefore, spend this Lent as if it were our last, and we will make it well. Listen to the sermons, because holy words are pearls; they are ships of infinite mercy – the true ocean of the East.”
Indeed, he makes a good point that the four practices will not make us holy if our heart is not involved. In this excerpt from St. Francis’ sermon for Ash Wednesday, the saint reminds us,
“Prepare yourselves to fast with charity, for if your fast is performed without it, it will be vain and useless, since fasting, like all other good works, is not pleasing to God unless it is done in charity and through charity. When you discipline yourself, when you say long prayers, if you have not charity, all that is nothing. Even though you should work miracles, if you have not charity, they will not profit you at all.”
ASHES WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT VISITATION MONASTERY AT THE 7:30am MASS AND ALSO AT 9AM WITH THE CHILDREN OF VISITATION ACADEMY.
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