Lent and the Heart of Traditional Practices

  • Thread starter Thread starter GloriaMaria
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

GloriaMaria

Guest
Lent is approaching. I’m sure there are a lot of archives that include what people DO for Lent. There are a few threads current that are about being and not doing.

I want to start over this Lent. I don’t want to just “do” my penances and devotions this time. I don’t want that for my family, either.

We need spiritual guidance. There is a certain person around here who might be able to offer it to all of us, the Franciscan way.

Are there other people who would appreciate this?

Brother JR, you have a lot of duties, and your health to consider. So, I can only ask. Will you lead this group closer to Christ with your Lenten advice this year?
 
My parish priests and pastoral associate have helped us tremendously in lenten practices. Joining in retreats, scripture studies, evening prayers are great practices for lent. I have never regretted joining one of these, or better yet, helping to plan. Our music director also helps us spiritually (I am in the choir). The Holy Week Masses are just beautiful, and learning the music can be a very contemplative thing for lent.
 
I would be very interested in this. I’m going to ask some questions the next RCIA class. This will be my first Lent that I’ll be observing.
The only things I have done are printouts of the stations of the cross and prayers to go with them. I want to do this at church but if I can’t get there b/c of ill weather or whatnot then I can do it from home.
 
ReddyFreddy said:
I would be very interested in this. I’m going to ask some questions the next RCIA class. This will be my first Lent that I’ll be observing.
The only things I have done are printouts of the stations of the cross and prayers to go with them. I want to do this at church but if I can’t get there b/c of ill weather or whatnot then I can do it from home.
Click to expand...
I will pray the Stations, too. When I first came back to the Church some years back I found that praying the Stations in the church with the priest leading them was very helpful. It didn’t work well for me at home, but if you don’t get distracted easily, it could work very well.

A friend recently told me about the method of St. Francis de Sales. She summed it up as, “Work is better than fasting, fasting is there to be able to give to the poor, self denial has to be temperate. Prayer.”

I had always just “given something up”. You know, like coffee, or dessert. It wasn’t easy, but I’m thinking it’s not enough. I’m missing an element. On the other hand, we have to mortify the ol’ body. So, it needs to be done.

I liked my friends advice, above. We work pretty much all the time around here. It’d be almost like not having to change anything. But that wouldn’t be right either.

Maybe someone else wants to chime in?
 
My thoughts?

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
We do a “Soup supper”, then Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent at our local OF parish. We use the Ligourian method. We also increase our Rosarys each day.

The last two years we were able to visit a friend who was in prison but he has been released. And in this state you must be on a list accepted by the prisoner. You just don’t go visit someone who is incarcerated.

So we are still working on some other things that we can do.
 
How about we start a book study or accountability group right here? Maybe we can all choose one discipline to do in common and keep each other honest about it. Stations every Friday? Reading *Introduction to the Devout Life *(or something similar)?
 
Mrs_Sally said:
How about we start a book study or accountability group right here? Maybe we can all choose one discipline to do in common and keep each other honest about it. Stations every Friday? Reading *Introduction to the Devout Life *(or something similar)?
Click to expand...
Good Idea. How about we start with Stations of the Cross every Friday? I’d do a book study.

LOLOL Melchior!
 
GloriaMaria said:
Good Idea. How about we start with Stations of the Cross every Friday? I’d do a book study.

LOLOL Melchior!
Click to expand...
I’m in on the Stations of the Cross!

All I see for Melchior’s post is the red x of picture death. :bighanky:
 
Mrs_Sally said:
I’m in on the Stations of the Cross!

All I see for Melchior’s post is the red x of picture death. :bighanky:
Click to expand...
It’s a picture of Holy Father Francis wearing Morpheus-style sunglasses (from the Matrix) saying:

"**WHAT IF I TOLD YOU.

THAT ONE LENT A YEAR IS THE MINIMUM**"

I like the idea of a book study a lot.

Also, have you ever had something that you love, that you embrace? Something that’s important to your being? Something you could NEVER live without? Something which if you lost, you will be devastated. Something you are all about. Tangible items which you possess. For the kids at the youth group I volunteer at, I see this with their cell phones. Their clothes. Their video games, their music.

Close your eyes. Think about this. Think about what you have, think about what you own, you hope and dream. What’s in your mind, what is in your future. What you have EARNED with the money you have made. What is rightfully yours. You own these things. These things are yours, you control them and control what happens to them.

Tell me, when you open your eyes, what would remain if it all went away?

Freedom.

This Lent take the next step. The biggest step. Take the one thing you hold most dear and let it go for forty days. And experience true freedom.
 
Melchior said:
It’s a picture of Holy Father Francis wearing Morpheus-style sunglasses (from the Matrix) saying:

"**WHAT IF I TOLD YOU.

THAT ONE LENT A YEAR IS THE MINIMUM**"

I like the idea of a book study a lot.

Also, have you ever had something that you love, that you embrace? Something that’s important to your being? Something you could NEVER live without? Something which if you lost, you will be devastated. Something you are all about. Tangible items which you possess. For the kids at the youth group I volunteer at, I see this with their cell phones. Their clothes. Their video games, their music.

Close your eyes. Think about this. Think about what you have, think about what you own, you hope and dream. What’s in your mind, what is in your future. What you have EARNED with the money you have made. What is rightfully yours. You own these things. These things are yours, you control them and control what happens to them.

Tell me, when you open your eyes, what would remain if it all went away?

Freedom.

This Lent take the next step. The biggest step. Take the one thing you hold most dear and let it go for forty days. And experience true freedom.
Click to expand...
Not a stuff person. But I’m thinking about this, and digging a little deeper. Thank You.
 
I thought St. Francis was trying to look like Geddy Lee. Guess I was wrong. I don’t know who this Matrix man is, but maybe he is trying to look like Geddy Lee too.

Gloria, this thread was a good idea.
 
Melchior said:
I like the idea of a book study a lot.

Also, have you ever had something that you love, that you embrace? Something that’s important to your being? Something you could NEVER live without? Something which if you lost, you will be devastated. Something you are all about. Tangible items which you possess. For the kids at the youth group I volunteer at, I see this with their cell phones. Their clothes. Their video games, their music.

Close your eyes. Think about this. Think about what you have, think about what you own, you hope and dream. What’s in your mind, what is in your future. What you have EARNED with the money you have made. What is rightfully yours. You own these things. These things are yours, you control them and control what happens to them.

Tell me, when you open your eyes, what would remain if it all went away?

Freedom.

This Lent take the next step. The biggest step. Take the one thing you hold most dear and let it go for forty days. And experience true freedom.
Click to expand...
Wow. That is very compelling.

Of course the funny part is that one thing I am very attached to (as is my family) is our hoards of books!

However, I do think there are other things I should let go of. Things that are good or neutral but that get in the way of my ability to focus on God and spend the time in prayer that I need to.

Is there a book that you’d recommend? *Devout Life *is always my go to because it was written for the laity, but I know there are others.
 
I have always tried to do 2 things during Lent. One item to fast from usually some food item but the second was to do a devotional. I have said a daily Rosary, only read Catholic readings, went to daily Mass, Stations of the Cross, the Angelus, Divine Mercy at 3pm. Anyway a lot of these that I have tried during Lent I have kept doing in my life. Some have come and stop after Lent, but I do the following Lent. Anyway I always try to do something to improve my Spirituality during this special prayerful time.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Is there a book that you’d recommend? *Devout Life *is always my go to because it was written for the laity, but I know there are others.
Click to expand...
Glad you asked, Mrs S. Happy are you poor is a fantastic book, and very very fitting for Lent. It was recommended to me by TimothyH here on CAF, with him knowing that it’d be up my wheelhouse.

I actually recommend that if we do a study group, that is the book we use.
 
Melchior said:
]Close your eyes
Click to expand...
. Think about this. Think about what you have, think about what you own, you hope and dream. What’s in your mind, what is in your future. What you have EARNED with the money you have made. What is rightfully yours. You own these things. These things are yours, you control them and control what happens to them.

Tell me, when you open your eyes, what would remain if it all went away?

Freedom.

This Lent take the next step. The biggest step. Take the one thing you hold most dear and let it go for forty days. And experience true freedom.

I figured it out. At first I thought, “my family”. Then I thought some more, I love my family, but I think the answer to this question for me is “my time”. This will be very, very difficult. Getting up even earlier, serving the family better, putting aside the time to relax after a long day and giving that time away to those around me. Staying up later than I’d like to talk with the teens. Making myself be still to read stories and cuddle with little ones. Internet usage. There’s more in there. Prayer. I need to give away more of my time to God.
 
Melchior said:
Glad you asked, Mrs S. Happy are you poor is a fantastic book, and very very fitting for Lent. It was recommended to me by TimothyH here on CAF, with him knowing that it’d be up my wheelhouse.

I actually recommend that if we do a study group, that is the book we use.
Click to expand...
I would really like to use this book. I started wondering about the Spirit of Poverty a few years back when God sent us a curve ball, and I had a hard time submitting to His Will. Actually, I failed miserably. I think about the spirit of poverty any time I pray the 3rd Joyful Mystery.

Then I read the Timmermans book on St. Francis of Assisi a few weeks ago, and I started to think about the character of Lady Brother Jacopa. She wasn’t poor but St. Francis truly loved her spirit of poverty. But the book isn’t about her, so we don’t know too much about why this was.

I give a yes vote to your book suggestion.
 
GloriaMaria said:
I figured it out. At first I thought, “my family”. Then I thought some more, I love my family, but I think the answer to this question for me is “my time”. This will be very, very difficult. Getting up even earlier, serving the family better, putting aside the time to relax after a long day and giving that time away to those around me. Staying up later than I’d like to talk with the teens. Making myself be still to read stories and cuddle with little ones. Internet usage. There’s more in there. Prayer. I need to give away more of my time to God.
Click to expand...
This is a beautiful example, Maria. Simply a beautiful example. Thank you so much for sharing this. It reminds me of a reflection I wrote:

**"In our daily lives, we are surrounded by noise. The noise gradually builds up to a deafening roar, at which we are unaware as we have grown accustomed to the gradual increase that our lives have bore witness to. Eventually, we find ourselves lost and unable to communicate. The method to avoid this is a simple one, and can be summed up in one sentence, and the use of applied physics;

Sound doesn’t travel through a vacuum"**
 
GloriaMaria said:
I would really like to use this book. I started wondering about the Spirit of Poverty a few years back when God sent us a curve ball, and I had a hard time submitting to His Will. Actually, I failed miserably. I think about the spirit of poverty any time I pray the 3rd Joyful Mystery.

Then I read the Timmermans book on St. Francis of Assisi a few weeks ago, and I started to think about the character of Lady Brother Jacopa. She wasn’t poor but St. Francis truly loved her spirit of poverty. But the book isn’t about her, so we don’t know too much about why this was.

I give a yes vote to your book suggestion.
Click to expand...
Again, thank you so much for sharing.

Gospel Poverty is one of those things which is so misunderstood. It’s not about giving up everything you have, it’s about the attitude one has towards “things” and re-evaluating what is needed versus what is wanted. It’s about losing the “want” and diminishing the “need”.

Full disclosure; the concept of Gospel Poverty is something I hold very dear. The detachment of “stuff’n’things” is something I strive for, and is something I work to have as a central component in my life and my faith. Yes, I enjoy material things. I have a tablet to read books on, I have a computer I built with my own two hands. But if a fire were to strike my home, would I be able to look and see “I can live without these, I am not attached or ruled by them?” Yes, I’ll be fine. If God wanted me to have these things, he’d bring them to me one way or another, right? Providence.

I gave a talk on this at the youth group I help out at. It was received well, but I don’t think people fully grasped the concept. The freedom they could have had.

My vote is (of course) for this book.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top