Lent stuff.

 Here is some of my favorite Lenten reading and a few prayers. Just thought I would share them with you.

Also a few sites with lists I found interesting. One is brought to you by Life Teen. I have heard the masses are bad, (I have never been to one), but I liked the list.

This is from The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis. (who in the world has à for a middle name/initial/something)? 

 

SELF-LOVE IS THE GREATEST HINDRANCE TO THE HIGHEST GOOD

THE VOICE OF CHRIST

    MY CHILD, you should give all for all, and in no way belong to yourself. You must know that self-love is more harmful to you than anything else in the world. In proportion to the love and affection you have for a thing, it will cling to you more or less. If your love is pure, simple, and well ordered, you will not be a slave to anything. Do not covet what you may not have. Do not possess anything that can hinder you or rob you of freedom.
    It is strange that you do not commit yourself to Me with your whole heart, together with all that you can desire or possess. Why are you consumed with foolish sorrow? Why are you wearied with unnecessary care? Be resigned to My will and you will suffer no loss.
    If you seek this or that, if you wish to be in this place or that place, to have more ease and pleasure, you will never rest or be free from care, for some defect is found in everything and everywhere someone will vex you. To obtain and multiply earthly goods, then, will not help you, but to despise them and root them out of your heart will aid. This, understand, is true not only of money and wealth, but also of ambition for honor and desire for empty praise, all of which will pass away with this world.
    The place matters little if the spirit of fervor is not there; nor will peace be lasting if it is sought from the outside; if your heart has no true foundation, that is, if you are not founded in Me, you may change, but you will not better yourself. For when occasion arises and is accepted, you will find that from which you fled and worse.

A PRAYER FOR CLEANSING THE HEART AND OBTAINING HEAVENLY WISDOM

    Strengthen me by the grace of Your holy spirit, O God. Give me the power to be strengthened inwardly and to empty my heart of all vain care and anxiety, so that I may not be drawn away by many desires, whether for precious things or mean ones. Let me look upon everything as passing, and upon myself as soon to pass away with them, because there is nothing lasting under the sun, where all is vanity and affliction of spirit. How wise is he who thinks thus!
    Give me, Lord, heavenly wisdom to learn above all else to seek and find You, to enjoy and love You more than anything, and to consider other things as they are, as Your wisdom has ordered them. Grant me prudence to avoid the flatterer and to bear patiently with him who disagrees with me. For it is great wisdom not to be moved by the sound of words, nor to give ear to the wicked, flattering siren. Then, I shall walk safely in the way I have begun.

I was reading through the Imitation, and got stuck here, and have been reading this section over and over. In some things, I am a slow learner.

Ah, what to give up? Actually, I have been honing the way I do Lent for almost ten years, since my conversion. I stop doing a lot of the things that eat up my time and have little substance. Most TV (not all), certain online things (not all--obviously), and some foods (definitely not too many). I spend more time in prayer and spiritual reading, daily mass and rosary, nightly examination of conscience, and try to get to confession weekly.


This is that list from Life Teen. Definitely not your usual no-chocolate Lent. 
Here is a more comprehensive and conventional list of ideas, from Catholic Exchange.

out?

 Here are a few prayers I love, from the little gem of a prayer booklet we got during parish visitation this year. 

Mother of Compassion

O Holy Virgin, in the midst of all your glory, we ask you not to forget the sorrows of this world. Cast a look of pity upon all who struggle against life's difficulties, and who cease not to feel all its bitterness. Have pity on all who have been separated from those they love. Have pity on the lonely and friendless. Pardon the weakness of our faith. have pity on those whom we love. O Holy Mother, show a mother's compassion toward the sorrowful and those who tremble under life's afflictions. Give them hope and peace.
Amen.

Prayer for Those Whose Lives I Touched

Beloved Shepherd of Souls! As I tread into the sunset of my life, I grow anxious for the spiritual welfare of souls who came to know me. It grieves me to think of the offenses they may have committed because of words or deeds of mine. I have in mind those who were my close responsibility
as well as those whom I sponsored in Baptism and whose spiritual condition is no longer known to me. In Your Merciful Goodness I now plead for the pardon of the soul who because of me may have lost Your favour. Humbly I implore You, let not one of them be lost, but when they leave this world may they find glorious entry into the Kingdom of Heaven! On behalf of those who may need to atone for offenses I may have caused them to commit, I offer You any infirmities or sufferings I am to undergo during the remaining years of my life. Dear Shepherd of Souls, grant them life eternal.

                                                                                                                               F.E. Callaghan

Today's reflection

 The Imitation of Christ

Passage from Book Two, Chapter One

Interior conversation

He who learns to live the interior life and to take little account of outward things, does not seek special places or times to perform devout exercises. A spiritual man quickly recollects himself because he has never wasted his attention upon externals. No outside work, no business that cannot wait stands in his way. He adjusts himself to things as they happen. He whose disposition is well ordered cares nothing about the strange, perverse behavior of others, for a man is upset and distracted only in proportion as he engrosses himself in externals. If all were well with you, therefore, and if you were purified from all sin, everything would tend to your good and be to your profit. But because you are as yet neither entirely dead to self nor free from all earthly affection, there is much that often displeases and disturbs you. Nothing so mars and defiles the heart of man as impure attachment to created things. But if you refuse external consolation, you will be able to contemplate heavenly things and often to experience interior joy.

for your reflection

In Lenten terms, I hope I am as close to blooming as these are!

I thought I would share a few of the passages that have jumped out at me during my Lenten reading these past weeks.

This one is very reassuring, to those of us still working out the knots; from Francis De Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life.

   A slow cure, as the maxim says, is always surest. Diseases of the soul as well as those of the body come posting on horseback but leave slowly and on foot.

And, from The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis,

The Value of Adversity

It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.

When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth.

 I admit, I have never gotten to the point of wishing for death. I have, though, realized that during times of trial, I do "lament and pray," and when things are swimming along, I sometimes forget God in my daily moment to moment. I do seem to have a pretty steady flow of things to keep me praying, so God has my number on that point.


I also was strangely touched by Chapter 23,Thoughts on Death. I have a version that has Old English. Sometimes it emphasizes the meanings of the words. I linked the modern version. I don't understand yet why that chapter grabbed me.

Blessings and Peace, 

Kelly