Today is Ash Wednesday, that slow, day-by-day journey, sponsored by the Holy Spirit, a gift from our loving God, always working to gather his beloved children (and especially those who feel lost or broken) closer to His merciful and perfect heart. You can pull the sheets over your head and extend your hibernation, or, you can jump in over your head, and come refreshed and made-new on the "other side."
It's your choice, but my advice is, " Go for the Full Monty" of the season, and follow me as I share my daily meditations on the gift of faith, and, in particular, the gifts of Lent.
As a convert to the faith, (40 years ago!) I slowly learned to love, and even embrace, this particular season of personal reflection and self-sacrifice. Having a liturgical pattern to my life has brought about great change and growth for me. I like to think of the liturgical year, and God's direct interaction in my life as my spiritual, God-made quilt, one of a kind, wrapped around my days. Always God has been there, waiting, guiding and loving me, and He will never abandon me! My "God quilt is more reliable than the sun, the moon and the stars, and also weaves itself into the vast universe, even as it remains here with me. And sometimes (especailly when I work in cooperation with the Holy Spirit) the brightness and beauty of my spirtual quilt brings tears to my eyes, and a rush of unbelievable joy to my heart.
The patterns of your personal quilt (or, whatever you want to use for your own constant connection to God) will change as you travel in and out of the various liturgical seasons. We are designed for such connection to our Creator. God sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten the hearts of the Apostolic leaders of our Church to lay down the pattern of our years, so that God can be with us in all that we do, keeping our foolish and fickle hearts focused on the only thing that brings us true and eternal joy, and also and fulfillment in this life. Yes, God saw how easily we stray, and get ourselves lost, lonely, and helpless. This is why we need the ritual of these various seasons, a sign of who we are, and a reminder of where we should be going.
To be sure, there are OH, SO MANY who are lost, but don't know it. Many people go through life thinking that they have no need of God, who is the actual driving force of our lives. People think they are independent, can live however they choose to live, take advantage of whoever they wish to, destroy whomever the choose, survive on their own without the love of God in their heart, but the very first person brought down by such a life is their very selves.
My early life was definitely not all peaches and cream. I was very lost and scared, drawn away from God by a broken family, with alcoholism and physical abuse. I grew up scarred and confused, not knowing where to turn. I spent my teen years in a very broken and influential culture learning about "love" from popular movies and songs of that era. (which has only gotten worse as the years go by, who could have guessed how bad things would get? 😫) But thanks be to God…, when I was still a young woman, He set me up on a date with a cute, funny, talented guy, who just happened to be raised in the Catholic faith. My funny man wasn't practicing his faith at the time, but I actually felt called to find a faith community, thinking I'd find a nice protestant church to join, NEVER imagining that the Holy Spirit would lead me straight to the Catholic Church. What a gift and blessing it was for me, to find the true beauty, riches and fulfillment that much of the world was trying to ignore, and make little of. And even my own, past mistakes turned out to be stepping stones to becoming a new person, overflowing in gratitude, and also surviving a treacherous "boot camp" which trained me up to be the very best girl-mom I could possibly be. My daughters are all so beautiful, inside and out, and strong in their faith. God has been so good, and kind and generous to me!
And now here we are, yet againreturning to that time of year where we have to "give up" stuff. (Seriously that's how a lot of Catholics think of Lent.) We're so limited in our understanding of God's ways. We're like little kids, our arms filled with beloved toys, our bellies filled with good food, our days filled with meaningless activities that often wear us down, but when God calls us, by way of Lent, to let go of these wordly, passing pleasures and/or burdens,we scream and cry and try to run away. If we only knew that God will give us all we need, if we just let go and said, "Not my will for my life, God, but yours…open my heart to your perfect will for my life, and fill me with the grace that I need to accomplish it!" If we could say that, then our hearts and lives would be filled with so many good things that we would need to rent spiritual storage space for all the gifts that God would give us! As those gifts piled our lives would be blessed in ways we never imagined. We'd be kicking ourselves for being so slow to believe. (Trust me, I've been there!) But God won't kick us. He will simply shower us with all we need, (Not all we want or think we need….there's a big difference there!) and our hearts will be full. Journey with me this Lent, with a daily post (that's my goal Holy Spirit, so give me the time and the grace I'll need to make that happen!). And let's see how much more beautiful Easter can be, and how bountiful and merciful God can be to each of us!
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