Thursday, February 23, 2012

Becoming spiritually fit during Lent

Keeping the Fast and Spiritual Fitness for Lent


It is a well-founded observation: More Catholics come to Church on Ash Wednesday (and Palm Sunday) than they do on Christmas and Easter.

Reality, or ‘ecclesiastical legend’? Although I wish it were different, I see this as a hopeful sign. It tells me that, as Catholics we want the world to know that we are baptized into the family of the Roman Catholic Church. Ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday are as ubiquitous as the palm branches on Passion Sunday. Even people from other faiths or who don’t belong to the Church know about our ashes. Catholic or otherwise, these sacramentals raise our consciousness to God. They remind us of our mortality but they also affirm the promise of God to raise us to new life with his Son after we have died. “If only we suffer with him … we may be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). And so we will be glorified with our Risen Lord but first we must be mortified.

Simple, but not easy...

Read more...

No comments:

Post a Comment