ETERNAL VICTORY

The journey in life is difficult and filled with crosses as it is filled with blessings. But sometimes the crosses seem to overshadow the blessings. The darkness seems to overshadow light, the suffering seems to overshadow the signs of resurrection and death seems to have the dominion. At times we find ourselves without hope. 

In this moment, God plants a seed of hope in our hearts and makes a way in the wilderness for us to overcome the journey of temptation. In the midst of our suffering, God plants the garden of delight. Like Jesus, we are invited to live as resurrected beings even as our hands reveal the wounds that remained.

Jesus’ message was one of forgiveness, “go and seen no more”. 

 God is going to do something new in history, and life not death will have the last word. Easter is itself the cry of victory and no one can point life that Christ has resurrected; neither death nor banners of death and hatred raised against him and against his church can prevail.

He is the victorious one just as he will thrive in an unending Easter. So, we must accompany him in lent and a holy week of cross. Those who have Christian faith and hope know that behind this Calvary lies our Easter, our resurrection. For that reason, I give thanks to the one who strengthened me in all things so that not one would impede me in the course I had undertaken and from the works which I had learnt from Christ my Lord.

It is right to make known the gift of God and His eternal consolation, to spread the word of God without fear so that even after my death I may leave something of value to the many thousands of my brothers and sisters.

David Hayker – Liturgical Leader

Secret to Living Lent

Each season provides nature with something it needs to keep growing as does the Church with liturgical seasons. In each liturgical season God sends us the graces we need in order to keep growing in wisdom, holiness, and happiness. But these graces don't benefit our souls automatically; rather, we have to take them in on purpose. 

While most people occupy their minds with earthly things, we need to know that our citizenship is in heaven. Our attention is on God - that's prayer. We have to ask ourselves: is our prayer life in good shape? Has it improved over the years? If it's out of shape, we won't be able to drink in the graces God wants to give us this Lent, the ones we really need.

If our prayer life hasn't grown in the last year, then we need to commit ourselves to improve it because it is through prayer that we realize our friendship with God. God still has so much he wants to do in our lives. Praying doesn't require any special talent; it is something everyone can do, like walking or breathing. First, we have to make a commitment. 

We have to decide firmly, that we are going to take the risk of setting out on the adventure of prayer. It is an adventure, because we don't really know where the Lord will take us. Second, we have to choose a tactic, some concrete activity that we can do to become experts in prayer, to continue along the adventure.

After the loss of grace through original sin, staying close to God became impossible. He is too bright for graceless, sin-damaged eyes to see; he is too far away for sin-weakened souls to find. If it weren't for Christ, who shades that brightness and crosses that distance, every human soul would live in hopeless frustration, unable to embrace the only true source of happiness: God. 

In Christ, the distant, mysterious God of the Old Covenant has come to walk by our side. In Christ, the age of frustration has ended. Friendship and closeness with God are once again made possible. God is no longer too bright and too distant; he is our close companion. 

Charles Joseph - Liturgical Task Force

A LENT LIKE NO OTHER

In Fr. William P. Saunders (a priest at the parish of Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls), He writes << I was always taught, "If you gave something up for the Lord, tough it out. Don't act like a Pharisee looking for a loophole." … an emphasis (during the period of lent) must be placed on performing spiritual works, like attending the Stations of the Cross, attending Mass, making a weekly holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, taking time for personal prayer and spiritual reading and most especially making a good confession and receiving sacramental absolution. Although the practices may have evolved over the centuries, the focus remains the same: to repent of sin, to renew our faith and to prepare to celebrate joyfully the mysteries of our salvation. >>

We find it necessary that, this period of lent has to be personalized, it has to be enriched and it really has to keep us focused on what this lent is all about. We are reminded every Sunday (if not every day) of why we are Christians. Easter is the reason we are Christians. 

Personalize this period! That is the message we put across again this Lenten period. It has to be the lent of 2013. It is has to be the Me who is again today being saved. That Christ is dying again for me this year. The message of Lent is today alive and talking to me in the person of me  

 It is so meaningful and we have to be aware of it that “In a holy Lent, we need to spend time being reminded of our need to trust in the providence of God (“Do not put the Lord your God to the test”), the supremacy of God (“Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only”), and the sufficiency of His Word (“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”). 

So Lent is really much more about what God adds to our lives as we spend intentional, focused time with Him rather than what we give up, because the Gospel is always about what God has done for us, not about what we do for Him.

All the experiences that Church is making us live during this period of Lent is just to let us know that we are Christian because God made us Christians. It is a choice of Love that gave us life. We are not our making, we are our acceptance. That during this period we come even closer to God, it is because at The Bosom we embrace anew the true feeling of being loved.

Our prayer today is that again this lent be an experience of ‘Being Loved’ and that, we embrace it like it was ‘No-Other’.

Collins Kangogo – Liturgical Task Force