Dear Friends, Today is a Blessed Day for all of us infact more rightly I should say a beginning for abundant of Blessings to fall on us. We need to be receptive however and never stop receiving graces because God doesn't stop giving ever. Today as I attended the Mass I remember the sermon of father which I would like to share with all of you. He said that we need to remember certain things as we begin the Holy days of Lent:
1) We can begin this season by repentance through the act of reconciliation which most of us normally do before Easter. 2) Fasting and Praying. When we fast it is very necessary that we pray also and thereafter nothing can stop God's graces to fall on us and our near & dear ones. 3) Alms giving. Alms giving doesn't include giving of money and food only but something more precious than that.............................any guesses........... yes u r right "LOVE". Let us give more of us and our Love to all those who need it. Giving of LOVE especially to those we don't like would be the Best Almsgiving and definitely pleasing to God. We need to be Happy and not gloomy as we begin this beautiful season of Lent which reminds us of the great Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ and let us spend a little extra time with Him thanking Him for our Salvation. I am forwarding the Reflection on today's readings received from Fr. Jude. Have a Blessed Day and May God be with you All. Love & Prayers Jennifer Mumbai ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 11-2-02 Dear Friend, On Wednesday we begin the season of Lent. What we recall are those words: "Remember thou are dust and into dust thou shall return" a solemn reminder of death, coupled with the ashes imposed on our forehead. Yet Lent need not be a gloomy season. Here are my reflections to get you started into the joyful season of Lenten. May His Spirit inspire -Fr. Jude --------------------- Ash Wednesday - February 13th 2002 Readings: Joel 2: 12-18 2 Corinthians 5: 20-6:2:2; Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 No doubt as we enter the season of Lent we are invited to repent and to turn back to the Lord. We are invited to make penance and to ask the Lord pardon for our sins. But the main focus is not and should not be on our sins and weaknesses that will only succeed in making us feel guilty, miserable and depressed. Rather we are asked to lift up our gaze on the Father who is full of mercy and forgiveness. May the word of God rekindle the fire of love in our hearts! The ritual ceremony of Ash Wednesday is the imposition of the ashes on our forehead. The church gives the celebrating priest two options of statements while imposing the ashes, either: "Remember thou art dust and to into dust thou shall return." or "Repent and believe in the Gospel." While the latter reminds us of our mission as Christians, the former reminds us of death that awaits us at the end of our life. Whether we like it or not we have to be ready to meet our maker. If I have lived each day for Him I have nothing to fear. Am I ready right now to meet Him? One tick at a time! A little watch was terrified at the thought of ticking away 60 seconds, times 60 times 24 hours, times 365 days. How would it manage? But the old large grandfather clock standing in the hallway smiled, "Do not fret, my son. I have been going now for three generations, and my experience is that all you need to remember is this: you are expected to produce only one tick at a time." The first reading from the prophet Joel is an invitation to true repentance and reconciliation with our God. "Come back to me with all your hearts! Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord for he is full of all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in forgiveness." The prophet points out that repentance does not consist in the external ritual, whatever it may be: putting on ashes, wearing torn garments, making penance or sacrifices. The core of repentance is coming back to the Lord, saying sorry to the person I have hurt and making amends for the pain I have caused. To show that we are genuinely sorry for what we have done, we fast, we pray, we make sacrifices and other acts of penance. But the latter without the former are empty and not pleasing to God. St. Paul reminds us in the letter to the Corinthians that the acceptable time is now, the present moment. "Well, now is the favourable time: this is the moment of salvation." If we look at our lives most of us live in the past or in the future. So much of our lives is a regret for the past: " Why did she say that, how could he have been so rude?" " How stupid of me to have made such a silly mistake?" " Why did that have to happen to me?" "If only that had happened." If not regrets for the past then we are worried and frightened about the future: "Oh my God, what will I do if I loose my job, fail in my exam?" "What will happen to me if I fall sick with that dreadful disease?" " What will I do if." The good news is that God does not keep a record of wrongs, some one has said God has no memory. Our God is a God of the present. The past is history, the future is mystery, only the present is reality. At the beginning of Lent the Church puts before us Jesus' thoughts on the three important tasks of the spiritual life: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Before speaking on any of the three, Jesus first gives us an open warning about practicing piety in order to be seen by people. He is clearly against it. While we must set a good example, Jesus is against people using religion to direct attention to themselves. The first spiritual duty is prayer. The prayer we are called to in Lent is not the prayer of words or formulas or even liturgy. We are called to the prayer of the heart, the kind of prayer that flows from a loving relationship with our God, our Father, the author of life and love. Jesus does not think much of posturing prayers that draw people's attention and are calculated for home consumption, when people might confuse length with fidelity, or confuse fluency with sincerity. As one great rabbi put it: "God says to Israel, pray in the synagogue of your city; if you cannot, pray in your bed; if you cannot, commune with your heart and be still." The second duty was fasting, an important spiritual tradition and a sign of repentance. Jesus criticizes those who make sure that everyone knows that they are fasting; what is important is that God knows! Fasting is an invitation to do something that will heal our hearts and emotions. But we have to be our own doctor. No one knows what area of fasting we need better than ourselves. Perhaps our language has become vulgar and we need to correct ourselves so that we talk like a Christian! Perhaps we have to work at being kind to someone. Perhaps we are addicted to TV, food, drink, pornography, the Internet etc. and we know we have to restore our freedom in these areas. What a great fast it would be to begin this journey. Whatever the fast consists of, we do it in union with the passion of Jesus on the cross and in union with the multitudes of our brothers and sisters, who are always fasting because they are poor. Be your own doctor and write your own prescription! Lastly, the third duty is that of almsgiving, which is the fruit of holiness. Lent is the time to deepen the bonds of family and friendship, so that truly we are His body touching the world with compassion and gentle mercy. Lent is the time for love to express itself in reconciliation. Jesus thinks little of those who make a show of their generosity. "Your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing." In the temple there was a room called the Chamber of the Silent, where people could atone for their sins by making offerings anonymously from which the poor could be helped secretly. This is the kind of giving approved by Jesus: it is quiet and it is for the benefit of the poor. What can we give? We should share the most precious gifts we have received: love, compassion, understanding and forgiveness. We are asked to give ourselves and in that we have the example of Jesus himself. The measure of giving is to give without measure, to give and not to count the cost, to give expecting nothing in return. Jesus calls us into the desert this Lent, to renew the covenant of love. For the Israelite the desert reminded them of their honeymoon" with God, when they had no cities, no armies, no temple, just Yahweh. Today the Lord is inviting us to enter into the desert of our hearts where he will speak to us not of our sins but of his great unconditional love for us. "I love you beyond fidelity and infidelity, I love you beyond worthiness and unworthiness, I love you beyond limit, I can't stop loving you!" It was a mistake or a new design? In the past when a Persian rug was being woven, it was mounted on a large frame, which was standing upright. On various stools and ladders behind the rug were perched little boys who helped along with the work. The weaver stood in front of the rug and shouted out directions to the boys on the other side. Sometimes one of the boys would make a mistake: he would put the wrong coloured thread in the wrong place. Most of the time the weaver did not removed the wrong coloured thread. If the weaver was a really great artist, he worked the wrong coloured thread into a new design, he improved it.. It is said that the true mark of a genuine Persian rug is that it has at least one such mistake or bit of asymmetry in its design. Similarly, the Lord weaves our mistakes into His design.. No matter what our mistake, he's on the other side of the rug and the design. Bruno Hagspiel This Lent, may we listen to His voice and allow Him to love us. Fr. Jude Botelho E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
