I've just spent 5 days in Faro, Portugal, beautiful weather, wine & food lol. Lent starts for me tomorrow when I return home. Went to mass today in the local church the architecture stunning hadnt a clue what was being said probably 4/5ths full & kept thinking of Fatima - the dogma of the faith in Portugal will always be preserved etc. When I booked this earlier in year for my wife's birthday on Valentine's day didn't realise it was Ash Wednesday. I will have to do a hardcore Lent when I get back giving up alcohol and sweet stuff.
Our priest asked us last night who did the Israelites roam in the dessert and wilderness for 40 years? If you look at a map, you could walk from Egypt to Israel in a few weeks. He said, God allowed this time in the dessert so they could discover where their hearts were. It was a time set for them to see inside of them, the false idols and sins they had that separated them from God. In the end sin is separating ourselves from God. Once they they saw that their hearts were set on God… when they truly lived the Shema- to love God with all their heart, mind and soul then they crossed into the Promised Land. So what does it mean for us today? Well, Father said, these 40 days of Lent are also a time when we can discover where are hearts are. We can see the manny idols and sins we have that also separate us from God. It is why the practices of fasting, prayer, and Almsgiving are “tools” to help us. And it shoukd not be a discouraging or sad time. Lent should be joyful because once we see our mistakes, sins, idols, we can with the grace of the Holy Spirit reject them. As the Gospel today said…. The kingdom of God is at hand. God loves us so much… he took on our sins and wiped them out via his suffering on the Cross. We need to merely repent and believe in the Gospel! I’m happy for this Lent. I’m searching my heart and like a few have said already, many past sins..serious ones, come into mind. I want to live the Shema….I know I can’t just do it…turn a switch on… I need the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let God lead.
Thought this article was relevant to the thread ~ Satan has been gaslighting you. Make him stop. Lent is a major showdown between you and the narcissist who has been gaslighting you. One way to look at Lent — and the Christian life in general — is to see it as a major showdown between you and the narcissist who has been gaslighting you. As you decide what to do in your spiritual life, think of it as a process of standing up for yourself at last. What is gaslighting? Gaslighting is a colloquial term from pop-psychology, not a clinical term from mental health care. It’s called “gaslighting” when a manipulative person subtly (or not so subtly) tries to twist reality to control another person — whether it’s a friend who always plays the victim to get their way or a competitor at work explaining why you shouldn’t want the promotion you’ve been working for. It’s often mentioned as a narcissist’s control tactic. But Scripture describes the gaslighting tactics of the original narcissistic manipulator: Satan. The Genesis story of the fall of Adam and Eve is a perfect example of gaslighting. “Did God really tell you not to eat of any of the trees of the garden?” Satan asks, insinuating that God is the kind of tyrant who would do that. Eve falls for it. She correctly says there is only one forbidden fruit, but then follows Satan’s lead, saying God would kill her if she even touches it. Satan attempts the same kinds of tricks with Jesus during the first Lent in the desert. He insinuates that a good God would let him turn stones into bread, prevent him from suffering, and give him power separate from God’s. Jesus refuses to fall for his tricks, and the Church gives us Lent to follow his example. Satan says we deserve pleasures that God wants to keep from us. Lent is a reality check. We don’t have to imagine Satan whispering in our ear to understand how this works. Our bodily appetites in our fallen state do this already. We see empty calories and our body wants to consume them; we see something seductive and desire it; we see a time-waster and we indulge it. Then Satan gaslights us, saying: “God is a tyrant who doesn’t want you to enjoy your life. Ignore him and grab what you can!” But the reality is that God fills our lives with pleasures of every kind — he created them all — and following his laws will increase our enjoyment of life in the long-run, not decrease it. Lenten fasting resets our understanding of the world and tells Satan — and ourselves — “Pleasures are a part of life, not the purpose of life. I live for God, not pleasure.” Satan tells us money is our savior. Lent says to give it away. Satan gaslights us into thinking we will be lost without money. We believe him. What would we do without money? We are convinced we need more and more. We work hours for money, to pay off endless debts. Then we spend more, piling up possessions and sinking us deeper into debt. Money fills our thoughts all day; it interrupts our sleep at night. We never have enough and we always fear losing it. We put all our trust in money and it always betrays our trust. Lenten almsgivingstrikes a blow to Satan’s lies about money by taking down our idol and cashing it in to spend on God’s true image — the human beings in need all around us. Satan also gaslights us the exactly the way he gaslights toddlers. We all know how silly it is for toddlers to throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way. But then we do the same thing, convinced that denial of our will is an afront to our dignity. Then we start becoming manipulative people trying to get our way. We get our family to do what we want instead of doing what they want; we arrange things at work so that we get maximal credit and minimal blame; we make ourselves the center of every conversation, sidelining others. Lenten prayer is an opportunity to put Jesus Christ back in the center of our lives. By spending time speaking to him, we rekindle our friendship, and shape our selfish will to his loving will. So stand up to Satan’s gaslighting this Lent. He’s lying. God created us to be happy, tailor-made the world for us, and God’s laws show us the way to make the most of it. Lent pushes back against Satan’s lies so that this Easter we can start a whole new life with God. https://aleteia.org/2024/02/12/satan-is-gaslighting-you-make-him-stop/
I am sorry I have not been posting very much on the forum. I think the Flu affected me much more than I thought. For instance I was so tired today I went back to bed four times today, each time for very deep sleeps. It was surprising today how many people attended Mass this morning in my local Church; I had forgotten how many people try to do daily Mass for Lent, bless them. On Sunday Morning I feel asleep during the Homily and did not wake up for about 40 minutes. I also find myself too tired to say the rosary very much . But there are worse things in the world than sleeping all the time. I see now why people talk about two weeks to get over things. May God's Holy Will be done forever and ever; its just a little bit unexpected.
Thank you Miker, I am still roaming in the dessert, but I believe this is where God wants me, at present. The tools of fasting, prayer, and Almsgiving of past lent's have enkindled in me a grace of forbearance and knowledge of my complete and utter reliance on God. Praise God for this grace. Lent is not a discouraging or sad time for me but neither is it a joyful time; It seems to be a time, where I am not only confronted with my sinfulness but am also confronted with my limitations. I fall short of goodness, demonstratively. Therefore my reliance on God (who is my only good) becomes more apparent during Lent. God needs to fill every crevice of my being, for if I am left with one opening for self, I know I will fill it with self; this is the reality of my life. Yet God, in His unfathomable Mercy looks upon me with tenderness, how incomprehensible is the Love and Mercy of God! It is unfathomable, because it is Divine! In my limited experience/understanding of Gods Love, I believe God allows our souls to be plunged into a blackness (sometimes during Lent) where we must await for Him alone to illume the darkness.
If this is the flu and it sure sounds like it--pushing too hard to get back to normal may actually prolong it. Might be a good idea to just stay put for a few days and rest and push lots of fluids. This is what my MD told us when we were sick over Christmas.
I had big plans for Lent but came down with RSV which is terrible! No ability to sleep as the coughing is unbelievable. I’ve had covid and pneumonia and RSV (and lack of sleep) just kicked me out of play. Five weeks later I’m still running a low grade fever and using a vaporizer to try to quell the cough. Needless to say this has put a big damper on my Lenten plans. The only one I have been able to maintain is the giving up of sweets which usually is the easiest for me but this year seems to be tough. Going thru some family things with my parents right now so prayers for them would be appreciated. Hoping God accepts the intentions I had for a prayerful and active Lent but it won’t happen this year. Life is getting in the way of prayer time. I have managed to maintain my New Year’s resolution for a rosary a day so maybe He is happy with the small steps I make on this journey
I think as so often happens in the Spiritual Life we have our plans all laid on and then God steps in with His plans and our own little plans get blown out of the water. But I can't imagine anything more fitting and wonderful to offer up for Lent than simply being on our sick beds. It's as though God took things into His own hands..and what hands could be better? If all this teaches me one thing it is that I am not young anymore. I saw a time in the past when I could shake things of in just a couple of days. But no more. The big secret seems to be in acceptance. Many Victim Souls like St Alexandrina Da Costa spent the entire lives on a sick bad. I can't imagine.
To walk out into the desert is to meet the devil. I would not say we are exactly old friends but it would be very true to say we are very old aquaintances. One good thing about being on my own all the time is that I get to see him coming and what he is up to. It might take me a while to tune into the fact it is him but sooner or later I do. This Lent he tries two things. The first is to undermine my Faith by repeating over and over again regarding Faith, 'It's all nonsense , its all a Fairy tale'. This is not the smartest argument he ever made but then again it does not have to be, he is not making an argument to the head but to the heart. Imagine a girl at school and imagine she is very, very beautiful. But then the other girls at school start telling her over and over and over again, 'You're very ugly, the ugliest little girl that ever lived!' Then imagine on top of this her teachers started chiming in telling her how ugly she was and in addition to this members of her family , friends and nieghbours.It would not matter what the truth actually was or is in the end she gets buried over neck in the chanting. I think a lot of what the devil does is not actually a temptation to do wrong. An awful lot of what the devil actually does focuses on the negative. Another thing the devil has been trying to do this Lent is to focus on a what a total failure my life has been. In this he is in fact quite right. It has been a total failure, expect in one small thing. The only thing I have ever wanted to be was a saint, to love God. It is true humanly I am a failure but I never really wanted to be a success at anything apart from being close to God. To pray. I may not be a saint...yet..but I have everything I ever dreamt about as a child in that I do pray all the time. So this makes me happy and the devil miss the mark. I don't think the answer to the devils arguments is to meet him head on and argue back. The answer is not to care. I don't care that I'm a failure I succeed at prayer that's all I ever wanted. and I don't care if other people don;t believe in God, I do.
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?” You have chosen rightly.
I think you know the devil, depending were we are in the Spiritual Life, his main aim is to cause us to sin. No I think his main aim is to cause us to feel bad and negative about ourselves and hence to doubt the mercy of God. For if we do not doubt his mercy we have already won. The Mercy of God is the trump card.
I went to 7.am Mass this morning and was a little uneasy. One of the priests had just died and the his coffin was in the Church was before the altar. Why uneasy? Well I listen to various homilies by these priests down the years and I have to say I regard most of them as out and out heretics. I made a comment on this recently and someone said that it was not a , 'Nice', thing to say. I suppose so. It is not a nice thing to say. But you know when I go to Jesus in Scripture the Jesus I find is not a nice person, nor did He ask that we who follow Him be, 'Nice' either. To me being a Christian is being about being truthful and honest and if something or someone is wrong or doing and saying something wrong at least being honest with ourselves and admitting they are wrong. Black and white. I don't know where being nice comes into any of this. Our duty is to the truth , not to being nice. Even that word, 'Nice', makes my skin crawl. If someone where to say to me what a , 'Nice' person I am I would take it as an insult and probably just about the worst thing anyone could ever say to me. I hate that word, 'Nice'. It reminds me of a cup of coffee with twenty spoonfuls of sugar in it. Yuk. But during the Mass something extraordinary happened. Behind the priest there was a very large Cross set up for Lent. It is fashioned out of two roughly cut off pieces of tree tied together in the form of a Cross. The bark of the tree has been stripped off and there you have these two pieces of a tree put together , rough but beautiful. As I looked at this, very , very clearly I saw a mans face surrounded by flames with his mouth open in agony in a silent scream. What threw me about this vision which appeared right through the Mass up until near the end when it vanished was the questions , was this soul in hell or very deep in purgatory ? Also was this the soul of the priest who's body was in the coffin? I prayed anyway for his poor, poor soul. But it reminded me that the truth is not about being nice.
Well, I ended up in the hospital for 4 days, very very ill indeed. Sometimes prayers are answered in unexpected ways, with the added bonus of an abundance of suffering to offer up. Along with the closing of loopholes ~
I am very sorry to hear this! I completely missed Advent because of catching the flu after Mass on December 8. ( very sick children sitting behind me) Then my husband got it. Christmas was w/out family. I did make it to Christmas Mass but it seems as though my Advent was handed to me. I offered it up but I was very disappointed. I am hoping Lent goes better. Are you well now? Offering a prayer for you.
If there is one thing that troubled me most the last few years it has always been being so happy and the total absence of any real suffering. When I say the rosary, when I pick up my Bible. when I read the lives of the Church Fathers, the Lives of the Saints, the Holy Martyrs the Blessed and Most Holy Virgin, the Most Sacred Heart, everywhere in every step we see a them full of blood stepped suffering. Yet when I turned to my own life , noting but joy, laughter and happiness. How can this be? I think his is so because the Cross of Christ is my joy. things in my Christian Life are turned upside down. I embrace the Cross, the Cross is all my joy!
