Fontgombault Ash Wednesday Sermon: "We still have a path of conversion to tread, strengthened by the reception of sacraments."

Ash Wednesday 

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau 

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, February 22, 2023

Miserere mei, Deus. 

Have mercy on me, O God. 

(Ps 56:2) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

My dearly beloved Sons, 

Mankind’s moral decadence, and as a consequence the weakening, and even the disappearance, of the respect due to each human life, scandals endlessly shaking the most respectable institutions, all kinds of diseases and viruses, all of these make a major contribution to a diffuse feeling of deep desperation and disquiet. Is human condition today enviable? Can man be loved? Can he love himself? Would his only outlet be to join those whose sole religion is the protection of nature, and the absolute preservation of animals until their natural death? Indeed, can man still be loved? 

Mental prayer video: Christ on fasting

Over the past year I have come to love, and grow, in mental prayer. This was something that eluded me because I am a deeply visual person and always had a difficult time reading a book on mental prayer then actually visualizing how to do it, until Fr. David Nix, a diocesan hermit, created his "VLX" series. 

If you want to start from the beginning and learn how to do the two forms of mental prayer, CLICK HERE. Fr. Nix posts about one new video per week. He also has a catechism course you'll see called "CPX". 

For today, I went back to a pre-Lent video, to refresh myself on what Jesus taught on fasting to keep it front and center during the home stretch leading up to Easter. And I've embedded that below. 

I encourage everyone, even children, to utilize this amazing video tool Father offers, especially if metal prayer is not currently a regular part of your prayer life. If you find it as deeply helpful to you as I do, please also consider donating to Fr. Nix, and help him continue his good work.

The Ultimate Selfie: Sermon for Laetare Sunday (Father Cipolla)

From the Gospel:  “Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.”

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded by all four of the Gospels.  This sign, this miracle, is considered as central within the kerygma, for it has always been understood as prefiguring the Holy Eucharist: the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fish as pointing to the miraculous reality of the true bread of heaven who is Jesus Christ given to the Church as his Real Presence among us until the end of time.  And in this way this gospel has always been associated with the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Laetare Sunday, with its introit:  “Rejoice O Jerusalem”, pointing to the Easter Sacrament by which the people are fed with the true Bread of Life.

But we must also remember that this miracle begins the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, the great discourse on the Eucharist, whose climax is Jesus’ words: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”.  It is those words that cause a number of Jesus’ followers to leave him. It is those words that anger the scribes and the Pharisees.  It is those words that help set off those events that lead to the Cross.  It is those words that lie at the heart of the Church’s understanding of and faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 

When the people who were fed by the miracle of the loaves and fishes were looking for Jesus later, he had no illusions about what they were looking for.  He said to them:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  I love the clarity of this.  The people were seeking him to see what he could give them next.  The miracle as a sign is a two edged sword; it proves nothing in the end.  Taken at face value it may be part of a mysterious magic show instead of the sign that points to a deeper reality  And we can imagine the people reacting like the townspeople in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Carousel singing:  

A Vatican II Moment -- Ash Wednesday in the Novus Ordo: The New Sacred Music

 It isn't from this year (the lack of the ubiquitous masks dates it), but we thank the traditional Catholic German organist who compiled this unbelievable display of modern "Sacred Music" on a past Ash Wednesday in the presence of Cardinal Woelki, in Cologne, Germany.

It has to be seen (and heard) to be believed:

Lent is coming: Time to prepare

Lent starts on Wednesday and we're running out of time to prepare. Here is a great place to start. Below are TWO fine resources to get you started and inspired to make this Lent fruitful. 

First, as we do every year, we bring to your attention this wonderful, traditional, five-part Lenten Mission by the holy and learned Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea. While it is not short, it does go by very quickly, and is easy to follow and understand. It's clear, concise and bold.

Click on each of the five themes of the mission: Prelude to the Mission * On Death * On Judgment * On Hell * On Heaven

Second, if you don't have a specific plan for Lent ahead of time, even better a written plan, you're really not prepared.

These links take you to to a one-page fillable plan for you to prepare for the season. You may consider praying on this over the weekend and filling in the sheets by Tuesday. Don't let Ash Wednesday sneak up on you without a plan in place.

CLICK HERE for English

CLICK HERE for French

CLICK HERE for German

CLICK HERE for Italian

CLICK HERE for Spanish

"Meditations on Death" - Part 6: A Lenten Series by Father Konrad zu Loewenstein

Part 6

A Lenten Guest Series by 

Father Konrad zu Loewenstein

6.    THE DEATH OF THE SINNER AND THE SAINT

a) The Death of the Sinner

St. Francis Borgia helping a dying impenitent (Goya)

‘My life is cut off as by a weaver; while I was yet beginning, he cut me off’ (Is 38.12). How many have been overtaken and cut off by death, while they were arranging worldly projects devised with so much labour. Others are given a time to prepare, by a shorter or longer illness.

Imagine yourself at the bed-side of a negligent Christian, overpowered by a malady with but a few hours yet to live. Behold him oppressed by pains, swoons, and suffocation; by want of breath, by cold perspirations; his reason so impaired that he feels but little, understands little, and can speak but little. We see by experience that such persons think only of their illness, of the physicians to be called to attend them, and of the remedies which may restore their health.

‘They are incapable of having any other thought than that of themselves’ says St. Lorenzo Giustiniani, and none of their relatives or friends has the courage to announce to them the advent of death, and to advise them to receive the Last Sacraments. If some-one does so, the dying man soon grows weary, and begs to be allowed to repose. He complains of a head-ache, and says it pains him to hear any-one speak. Or else he makes some reply, but is confused and knows not what he is saying.

If he does believe at all, what peace can he enjoy when he sees that in but a few moments he shall appear before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, Whose law and friendship he has till then despised? His sins will encompass him around, and say, in the words of St. Bernard: ‘We are your works, we will not desert you’.

To conquer bad habits, St. Augustine had to fight against them for 12 years. How will the dying man, who has always lived in sin, be able, in the midst of the pains, the stupefaction, and the confusion of death to repent sincerely of his past? His mind is darkened and his heart is hardened. ‘He that loveth danger shall perish in it’ (Eccl.us 3.27). St. Jerome teaches that of 100,000 sinners who continue in it till their death, scarcely one will be saved. St Vincent Ferrier writes that it is a greater miracle that such a one should be saved than to raise the dead to life.

Furthermore the devils will gather together and exert all their strength to assure the perdition of his soul, if indeed it is in doubt. They know that they have little time to gain it, and if they lose it at death, then they shall have lost it forever. ‘Behold the devil is come down upon you, with great wrath, knowing that he has but little time’ (Apoc 12.12). Not just one, but innumerable devils will assail him. One will say: ‘Fear not, you will recover’; another will say: ‘For years you have been deaf to God’s inspirations: how do you expect Him to have mercy on you now?’ Another will ask: ‘How can you ever repair the damage to the character of your neighbours?’ Another will say: ‘Your confessions were all invalid.’

The attacks of the devils, the certainty of his coming death, the thought of being obliged soon to take leave of everything in this world, the remorse of conscience, the time lost, the want of time present, the impossibility of conversion, the rigour of the divine judgment, the thought of eternal damnation: all these things will form a horrible tempest in his heart. And meanwhile his reason wavers, his mind darkens, and his whole frame is assailed by the pains of approaching death and the onslaught of the devils, and thus, full of confusion and terror, the dying sinner will pass into the other world. ‘The people shall be troubled and they shall pass’ (Job 34. 20).

‘Ah my God!’ exclaims St. Alphonsus, ‘Had I died on one of those nights known to Thee, where should I be now? I thank Thee for having waited on me; I thank Thee for all the time which I should have spent in Hell from the first moment that I offended Thee. Give me light and make me aware of the evil I have done Thee in voluntarily losing Thy Grace, which Thou didst merit for me by Thy death on the Cross!’ Amen.

b) The Death of the Repentant Sinner and the Saint

i) Confidence necessary at Death

God, Who is by nature Infinite Goodness, as St. Leo says, has an infinite desire to impart His own happiness to us, and therefore desires not to punish, but to have mercy on, us. ‘Return to Me,’ says the Lord, and I will receive thee’ (Jer. 3.1); ‘Turn to Me... and I will turn to you, says the Lord of Hosts’ (Zac 1.3).

With what love and tenderness does not God embrace the repentant sinner? The Good Shepherd lays the lost sheep on his shoulders rejoicing, and, coming home, calls together his friends and neighbours telling them: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep who was lost.’ The Father runs from afar to meet and to embrace the prodigal son, and says to his other son: ‘This thy brother was dead and has returned to life; he was lost & is found’(Lk 15).

God, says Origenes, is more solicitous for our salvation than the devil is for our perdition, for the Lord loves our souls far more than the devil hates them. If the devil comes on death to tempt the dying Christian, the guardian angel will resist him together with the man’s his holy patrons; St Michael whom God has appointed to defend His faithful servants in their last combat will come, as also the divine Mother protect her child, and to drive away the devils from him. Above all Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself will come to guard that innocent or penitent sheep for whose salvation He has given His life on the Cross.

At death, the judgment of God excites fear for all, but if sinners pass from terror to despair, the saints rise from fear to confidence. ‘God does not permit us to be tempted above our strength’ (1 Cor 10.13). ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?’ (Ps. 26) ‘The Lord is my helper’ (Ps 29). When St. Bernard was tempted to despair, He said to the Saviour: ‘Thy wounds are my merits’; St. Hilarion, similarly tempted, said: ‘Go forth, my soul, what do you fear? Have you not served Christ for 70 years? And are you now afraid of death?’

But how can any-one be certain that God has forgiven his sins? ‘He can be certain’, replies St. Basil, ‘if he says: I have hated and abhorred iniquity.’ St. Claude de la Colombi`ere held it morally impossible that the man that had been faithful to God during life, should die a bad death; and St Augustine writes: ‘He who has lived well cannot die badly.’ What is true of the saints who have always lived well is also true of penitent sinners who have made a sincere conversion after grave sin. The Church teaches dogmatically that only the mortal sinner will be condemned. To have complete confidence in salvation at death, all that is necessary is, then, to be in the state of Grace.

"Meditations on Death" - Part 5: A Lenten Series by Father Konrad Loewenstein

Part 5

A Lenten Guest Series by 

Father Konrad zu Loewenstein 

5.  DELUSIONS OF THE DEVIL

1) ‘I cannot resist the temptation’

But the Apostle tells us: ‘God is faithful and never permits us to be tempted above our strength (1 Cor 10.13).’ And if you cannot resist now, how will you be able to resist next time?

2) ‘I am young and there is time for conversion’

But how do you know that there is time? And do you not know that God counts not the years but the sins of each individual? You are young, but how many sins have you already committed? There are many people of advanced age who have not been guilty of the tenth part of your sins. When the measure of the sins that He has resolved to pardon is completed, He will send a sudden death, or, which is worse, abandon you to your sin.

3) ‘I will sin, but I will confess it later’

Tell me, would you cast yourself into a pool of freezing water and say, perhaps I shall not be drowned?’ Would you take a boat into the middle of the ocean to the point where it is at its deepest, and there cast into its bosom the most precious object you possess, a jewel, an heirloom of priceless worth, and say: ‘I can always come and  retrieve it another day?’

But now you hold in your hand the infinitely precious jewel of your immortal soul, and you voluntarily cast it into Hell, and say: I hope to recover it after a good confession. And when will this confession then be? To-morrow? But who promises you to-morrow? St. Augustine says: ‘God has not promised you to-morrow: perhaps He will give it: perhaps He will not’. And if you do confess to-morrow (which is unlikely), how will you arouse the necessary sorrow? For every time you sin, this becomes more difficult.  Yielding this time will make it more difficult to resist hereafter. For each sin is like the blow of the hammer on the anvil, which serves only to make the iron harder, and so the sin hardens your heart ever more, and makes it ever less malleable to the operations of Divine Grace.

"Meditations on Death" – Part 4 : A Lenten Series by Father Konrad zu Loewenstein

Part 4

A Lenten Guest Series by 

Father Konrad zu Loewenstein 

4.    THE  FOLLY OF THE SINNER

‘The number of fools is infinite’ (Eccl 1.15)

The men of the world are fools, but they have the temerity to call themselves prudent and wise, and the faithful Christians fools. They mock their child-like faith, their prayers and mortifications, their embracing contempt, poverty, solitude, humility, and the hidden life. They never reflect that the Lord has called the wisdom of this world folly (1 Cor 3.19).

St. Bernard saw a vision of four classes of fools all with a great thirst for happiness, and trying to quench it with earth, air, fire, or water: earth for possessions; air for empty honours; fire for passions and revenge; and fetid water for voluptuous and unchaste pleasures. Such are the desires of the men of the world: such are the desires around which their prudence and wisdom revolve: desires both irrational and insatiable: ‘The possession of great wealth’ says St. Augustine, ‘does not close, but rather extends, the jaws of avarice’, and similarly for honours; the more that the unchaste man wallows in the more of impurity the greater his disgust and the greater his desire; and similarly for all the other passions.

But God has created our heart for Him, and for Him alone, and for that reason only the possession of God can make us happy, and only He can give us true peace. Brute animals were made for sensual pleasure, and in that they find their peace, but man is made for God. ‘Soul, thou hast many goods laid up for many years’ says the man in the parable (Lk 12.19), ‘Take thy rest, eat, drink, and be merry!’ Wretched fool! Says St. Basil, ‘have you then the soul of a brute that you expect that to bring you happiness?’

"Meditations on Death" Part 3 - A Lenten Series by Father Konrad zu Loewenstein: 3. The Value of Time

A Lenten Guest Series by
Father Konrad zu Loewenstein 

3.    THE VALUE OF TIME

a) The Passage of Time

What, then, is your life? ‘It is a vapour which appeareth for a while’ (Jc 4.15). The vapours exhaled from the earth, says St. Alphonsus, when raised on the air and invested with the light of the sun, make a resplendent appearance, but how long does that splendour last? It is dissipated by the first blast of wind, and then it is seen no more. ‘Cry... all flesh is grass... The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen.’ (Isaiah 40. 6); ‘Man born of woman, lives for a short while... he comes forth like a flower and is destroyed’ (Job). ‘We all die... like the waters that return no more.’ (II Kings 14.14), and ‘All rivers run into the sea’(Eccl 1.7).

The world is like a stage, says Cornelius a Lapide: one generation passes, and another comes. The generation of man is like the generation of leaves on the tree, says Homer in the Iliad: Now the leaves die and are blown about the earth by the wind; and now the trees are budding again and bringing forth new life. Life is short, even if in youth it seems long. Everything that has a limit to it is short, says St. Augustine. Indeed compared with limitless eternity the present life is nothing, or almost nothing. But if in length it is nothing, in importance it is everything. So ‘those that use this world, be as if they used it not... for the fabric of this world is passing away’ (I Cor 7.29).

‘My days... have passed as ships carrying fruits’ (Job 9.25). They have passed with their pleasures, and what remains of those pleasures now? The great ones of the world, those who have lived for pleasures, when they have died, are spoken of for a while, but they are soon forgotten: ‘Their memory has passed with a noise’ (Ps 9.7).

... As they say to themselves: ‘What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow, and like a post that runneth on, And as a ship that passeth through the waves: whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of its keel in the waters: Or as when a bird flieth through the air, of the passage of which no mark can be found, but only the sound of the wings beating the light air, and parting it by the force of her flight; she moved her wings, and hath flown through, and there is no mark found afterwards of her way: Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the divided air presently cometh together again, so that the passage thereof is not known.

‘So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be: and have been able to shew no mark of virtue: but are consumed in our wickedness.  Such things as these the sinners said in Hell: For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by. But the just shall live for evermore: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the most High’ (Wis. 5).

“Meditations on Death” - Part 2: A Lenten Series by Father Konrad zu Loewenstein - 2: The Hour of Death

PART 2

A Lenten Guest Series by 

Father Konrad zu Loewenstein

‘It is given to man once to die, and after follows the judgment’ (Hebrews 9.27)

THE HOUR OF DEATH

‘Nothing is more certain than death’, says the Idiota, ‘but nothing is more uncertain than its Hour’.

a) The Certainty of Death

In 150 years from now all those who are at present alive will have passed out of this world: all those who now fill the bustling streets of our cities, who fill our houses, who inhabit the countryside, who sail the sea, or fly and travel, who wake and sleep: all these will havedeparted. “Days will be formed and no-one in them” (Ps. 138.16). In the same way, of allthose who lived 150 years ago, not one is still alive. “Yesterday for me: to-day for thee” (Eccl. 38. 23).

What foolishness, then, to live on this earth as though it were to be our eternal dwelling – what foolishness for a traveller passing through a country on an important mission to spend all he possesses on a house that he must soon abandon, or for a man crossing a desert to settle at an oasis and advance no further. What eminent wisdom, by contrast, to live as though each day, each act, were our last; to fill each day and each act with an ever more perfect love of God: to prepare us for our passage into Eternity.

Fontgombault Sermon for Ash Wednesday: Lent is not a time for ascetic exploits, but for a merely and truly Christian life.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, February 26, 2020

Convertimini ad me.

Be converted to Me with all your heart.

Joel 2:12

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

The Holy Forty Days of Penance are back, days both dreaded and desired.

Dreaded, for they remind us that it is our duty to convert, to turn around. What is at stake in this turnaround is perhaps not the ultimate orientation of our lives, yet, it does demand a true effort on such or such point, which we have to discern and acknowledge. It’s never something easy to give up habits that have grown old at the same pace as we have. What a token of love if we do that! What a merit!

These days are also desired, for they will end up in the light of the Risen One. The Easter night encounter is like the magnet reorienting the compass of our lives during Lent.

Encountering and receiving the Lord cannot be improvised. Remember the Gospel part about Martha and Mary. The Lord has entered His friends’ home. Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Martha is busy with the preparation of the meal, and she grows impatient with her sister’s inactivity. Jesus, while He acknowledges that Martha is busy with many things (for that matter, He doesn’t ask her to give up cooking), tactfully reminds her that one choice only is good, truly good. This good part consists in receiving Jesus in one’s heart.

Jesus’ answer points out what a true Lenten path should be. It doesn’t mean we should take up Carthusian observances. It means that, while we remain faithful to our duty of state, to our humdrum everyday routine, we should receive again, or receive better, Jesus into our own lives.

"Meditations on Death" A Lenten Guest Series by Father Konrad zu Loewenstein - I: Introduction

A Lenten Guest-Series by 
Father Konrad zu Loewenstein

Now that we have entered the liturgical season of Septuagesima, and are about to enter the great penitential season of Lent, it is appropriate to recall to mind the perennial Catholic teaching on death.

To this end I offer readers a synthesis of the respective material to be found in the book Preparation  for Death by St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori.

Proficiat ad vitam aeternam! Amen.

MEDITATIONS ON DEATH

after the ‘Preparation for Death’, by St. Alphonsus Maria de’Liguori

Introduction

Event: Institute of Christ the King Lenten day of recollection for young adults

ARCHBISHOP LUIGI NEGRI – Our certainty is this: Christ is with us

a lenten meditation

The Lenten journey has to be made by men who have their hearts filled with one certainty. This certainty, which reconciles with everyday existence, is that Christ is with us: in a close embrace, an embrace that no human or supernatural power can ever loosen.

Life then is not an individual running around in search of reality; it is not a determination to express one’s needs and intentions the most adequate way possible. Life is a gift that is given every day by the grace of Christ present in His Church.

Therefore our prime Lenten approach is that of submission to this certainty: living this reality. The reality of life is not that of taking off by ourselves into the world in the effort to conquest goodness knows what;  life is a gift, bestowed on us, which we have to embrace with all the power of understanding and love we have in our hearts. This certainty – that if Christ is with us nobody can be against us – is the intellectual and moral foundation – but I’d like to say even the psychological and emotional foundation – of the Christian life.

Lent is coming (it's here!): Time to prepare -- start here!

Reposting this -- it's not too late!
---------------------
Original post:

Lent starts on Wednesday and we're running out of time to prepare. Here is a great place to start. Below are TWO fine resources to get you started and inspired to make this Lent fruitful. 

First, as we do every year, we bring to your attention this wonderful, traditional, five-part Lenten Mission by the holy and learned Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea. While it is not short, it does go by very quickly, and is easy to follow and understand. It's clear, concise and bold.

Click on each of the five themes of the mission: Prelude to the Mission * On Death * On Judgment * On Hell * On Heaven

Second, if you don't have a specific plan for Lent ahead of time, even better a written plan, you're really not prepared.

These links take you to to a one-page fillable plan for you to prepare for the season. You may consider praying on this over the weekend and filling in the sheets by Tuesday. Don't let Ash Wednesday sneak up on you without a plan in place.

CLICK HERE for English

CLICK HERE for French

CLICK HERE for German

CLICK HERE for Italian

CLICK HERE for Spanish

Guest Op-Ed: The Six Principles of Penance according to St. Thomas Aquinas

By Veronica A. Arntz

In Summa Theologiae III, q. 85, a. 5, St. Thomas Aquinas writes that there are six principles of penance. These principles of penance, according to Aquinas, are the “acts whereby in penance we co-operate with God operating” (III, q. 85, a. 5, corpus). Reflecting on these principles during the season of Lent can be helpful for us as we prepare for the Holy Triduum.

How have we been using our time during this Lent? Have we been truly sorry for our sins, or are we wasting our time idly pursuing worldly ends and goals? How diligently have we been purging ourselves of earthly attachments, bad habits, and sinful behaviors? Have we been striving to become closer to God in prayer? These are the questions to ask ourselves as we read and reflect upon the six principles offered by Aquinas.

First, a note on penance in general: in I-II, q. 113, a. 5, Thomas writes that sadness is a sign of love. Penance is sadness over our sins; we repent over the wrong that we have committed, and we resolve not to commit the same sins again. Thus, when we are sad over our sins, we should ultimately be sad because of offending God who is Love, who loved us so much that He suffered and died for us on the Cross.

A Case Study of Rupture in the Lex Orandi: The Epistles of Lenten Sundays

One of the most striking areas of rupture and discontinuity between the traditional Latin Mass and the Mass of Paul VI is to be found in the passages of Scripture read on Sundays. The annual cycle of the old Missal, embodying the practice of well over a millennium, puts before the Christian people year after year essential truths of the spiritual life and fundamentals of morality to which we must always return. The three-year cycle of the new Mass, an unprecedented novelty against the backdrop of all historic liturgical rites, brings in a greater quantity and variety of texts but, as a result, diffuses the impact and substance of the message.

It is as if the canvas on which the painting is being executed is so large and the subjects so numerous that one cannot quite make out what the painting is of. There is not enough “useful repetition” to allow the words to sink in deeply and remain in the heart, rather than passing in one ear and out the other. As a friend of mine likes to say, education involves cutting the groove many times until a lasting mark is left. The enormous contrast between the two is appreciated perhaps only by those who have regularly attended both forms of the Roman Rite over a long stretch of time.

Sundays in Lent

As Lent is 1/4 over already (but who's counting?), we thought it would be of interest to share commentary from a popular handmissal on the Sundays within Lent, which are of course not part of the 40 penitential days between Ash Wednesday and Easter:

"As today is not a day of fasting, there is no collecta previous to the stational procession, this procession being a rite of a distinctly penitential character, and therefore not in keeping with the Sunday festival." - The New Roman Missal, by Father F.X. Lasance

 May your Sunday be a glorious one before we resume our fasting and penance tomorrow.

Guest Op-Ed: Penance for the sake of Heaven -- Reflections for Ash Wednesday

By Veronica A. Arntz

Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the season of Lent. The Church, in the wisdom of the old liturgical calendar, gave us the past few Sundays to prepare ourselves for this season of fasting, prayer, and penance. Lent is the time of the liturgical year in which we pause and recognize our weak human nature, our inclination to sin, and our mortality. Some will look at our rigorous sacrifices and fasting as foolishness, given how our society is wont to pursue instant gratification. What is it that motivates our penances? Perhaps reflecting on that question will help us to choose penances that will deepen our spiritual lives and our love for God.

In Question 12 of the Prima Pars of his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas considers the knowability of God; in other words, how does man know God, both in this life and in the next, when he is able to see His Divine essence? In Article 6, Thomas asks whether some will see the Divine essence more perfectly than others will. He argues in the affirmative, stating that it is based on the intellect’s greater capacity that will allow some to behold the vision of God more perfectly. The object—the vision of God—will remain the same, since God does not change, but the more perfectly an intellect shares in the light of glory, the more perfectly He will be seen. Thomas explains:

Lent is coming: Time to prepare

Lent starts tomorrow. We're running out of time to prepare.

In the past, you could find a traditional Lenten Mission at many parishes. Now, unless you are near a traditional parish, they are nearly extinct -- or worthless.

Fortunately, we are not meant to live in the past, we are meant to live in the now. And, now, we have the Internet. And there is an abundance of good on the Internet, along with the bad.

As we do every year, we bring to your attention this wonderful, traditional, five-part Lenten Mission by the holy and learned Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea. While it is not short, it does go by very quickly, and is easy to follow and understand. It's clear, concise and bold.

As the season nears, you would do well to listen to this, to pray on it and to use it to prepare for a fruitful Lent -- and be ready for it to change you for the better.

Click on each of the five themes of the mission: Prelude to the Mission * On Death * On Judgment * On Hell * On Heaven * (download all MP3 files in one here)