How goes YOUR Lent?

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There’s something missing in the diary like rendering of the events on TOM’s Fri. in Lent. Was he doing it just for the OBSERVANCE of it or for God??

I doubt most Catholics adhere to the Letter of the “law of Abstinence” on Fri.'s in Lent altho there is Merit in fulfilling our Lent observances, it is “For the praise and glory of Christ’s Name, for Our good and the good of ALL HIS HOLY CHURCH” as the liturgical prayer so aptly puts it!!
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Lent reminds me of young Elihu challenging Job. The Living Bible has a biting paraphrase as follows:
3“Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I haven’t sinned, but I’m no better off before God than if I had’? 4 “I will answer you and all your friends too. 5 Look up there into the sky, high above you. 6 If you sin, does that shake the heavens and knock God from his throne? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have upon him? 7 Or if you are good, is this some great gift to him? --(Job 35:4-7)
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How many of us have offered up something to God and yet wondered if it made a difference, really. Is God truly glorified if I pass by The World’s Best Fish Fry ™? After all, how could He be glorified if I buy a carryout and stare at it until Saturday? But if it were not this, wouldn’t it be anything else in the pantry?

Fasting frees up an amazing amount of time that used to be spent on meals. And that free time is filled with dozens of questions. Am I truly being humble? Am I truly being humbled? Is my soul blessed and/or being blessed? Is anything I do or say truly for the good of my soul and the good of the church? And how many of us have had those days when we feel like our prayers never floated up past the ceiling?

I grew up in many churches. (The relatives disagreed on where to take their children.) Some of those churches taught that if you were saved, you would feel it. You would have an emotional experience. Others stressed faith alone. Still others said faith-plus-works, defined as “which blade of the scissors did the cutting.” Catholics had Consolation-and-Desolation, but I didn’t encounter anyone else who did.

I bumble along, trying to figure out how to “love the LORD your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Long ago I read an article that suggested this tension is normal, albeit not much fun. On the one hand, I can never do enough, and I can never do it well enough or prayerfully enough or holy-ly enough. On the other hand, God does not wait for us to be perfect before He meets us as we are. We cannot do enough, so He did, on the Cross.

Another way I know it’s Lent is if I wonder whether anything I could say on the subject would make sense to anyone. 😔
 
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@tad and @Psychae, that borders on Pantheism!?#!
God DID create the Universe, but the Universe has
been CORRUPTED by Sin, first, the Serpent’s and
his angels, then Man, the first to fall created hell, the
second, death!! See Matt. 25:41 and 1 Cor. 15:21
It is also written that “God did not invent death”
Wisdom 1:13
 
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Not at all. No pantheism here.

St Francis of Assisi could see God in every blade of grass…
 
Not so well. I decided to give up my laziness, my worst trait, in my opinion, and I’m not making the progress I want to make. I got up early this morning, ate breakfast, then took a nap.

On the positive side, I am getting some things done that I’d been putting off, but all-in-all, I’m disappointed in myself. I should do better for Christ.
 
A different sort of Lent,pushing through some low days offering up for specific causes and coming through at the end of the day feeling something has been gained.Its the recognising the moods and giving them to God that has been the biggest benifit ,even if at the time feet are dragging.
Putting effort into doing ,and trying to be pleasant when I feel blah can be hard slog.
 
Glam, you are quite wrong about the comment “seeing God in everything” that Tad made above. Tad is correct, and it sounds like you glam come from a Calvinist, not Catholic, position. Catholics do not believe the world is entirely corrupt, but that it is essentially good, but corrupted by sin. Keep in mind that the first part of this is “essentially good”–that has NOT changed despite the corruption by sin. All of the saints, yes including St. Francis of Assisi, came to see everything as good, everything as a source of grace, and thus lived continually in thanksgiving to God for everything. “All is grace”–ALL.
We are not blind to sin and corruption: we fight it. But we also understand that God incessantly draws good out of evil, even out of our own sin and misery, if we repent of sin and offer our failings to God. What a beautiful thing! “Oh Happy Fault of Adam,” the Church sings at Eastertide.
 
I can pray for your intentions,offer up as I’ve been feeling lathargic …you might pray for me also?
 
Thanx for correcting me on that! I guess I was thinking
of all that is WRONG and UNJUST in the world, from
the “survival of the fittest” in Nature to the Cruelty that
is so prevalent in the world. There is also a LOT of
beauty and GOOD in this world and that is God’s
Kingdom being advanced led mostly by the Church.
 
Thanks, I think I know where you’re coming from. What I was trying to say is that I believe that God speaks to us through the people and events of our lives and even though life is challenging right now, it’s impossible for me not to see the finger of God working.

Even last Sunday, I figured out what penance God has given me, and now that I know it’s from Him I take it on with joy.

This is typical for me during this sacred season. I make my plans, fail miserably and then God takes over. I’m learning, over the years, to be still, to be aware and to be open to the possibilities of God. This is why I say it seems like every bush is on fire.
 
I’m also reminded of

Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse. (Romans 1:20)
 
I will also pray for you! 🌷

@GLam1761 Thank you for the novena, I will try to incorporate it for the next days ahead. :pray:t2:
 
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