Lent 2022

May yours be fruitful. 

image - http://www.emme-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/lent1-1.jpg

It's Lent And The Front Cover of Unraveling My Father's Suicide Is Ready

It's Lent, thank God, literally. It's my annual time to regroup and pull in the reins of the lure of spiritual laziness. My spiritual counselor suggested I attend Daily Mass every day. For some, that would be easy to do.  For me, since I have acquired a late-night writer's schedule, it's not so easy. I compromised and am attending Daily Mass three times a week. I recall the days a few years ago when I did that regularly. I miss Daily Mass. I love waking up to something bigger than me. I love waking up to Jesus Christ, in Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Nonetheless, I wonder if I will continue my practice after Lent when the overriding impetus is gone.  I am a sinner. God please help me. I am weak. Make me strong.

Other things I'm doing for Lent? I gave up Super Blow Pops.

They're terrible for you.  Sugar, corn syrup, bubble gum in the middle. It takes me a 1/2 hour to consume one and blow bubbles. I don't even know how I got started on them. Watermelon, Cherry, Grape, Sour Apple, Strawberry. Childhood memories. Not good for the teeth at all, but I'd eat them anyhow.

I also gave up electronic Scrabble and WordWhomp. That has been harder than I expected. I want to open a new Window right now and play my games. Finally, I gave up meat on Wednesdays in addition to Fridays, and there are a couple things too personal to share. Why give up anything at all? To deepen my relationship with God by walking with Jesus in His Passion. +

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Ta Dah! The front cover design for my book has been finalized. This is it. I hope you like it and I hope it is not much longer for the back and spine designs to be done, followed by the design of the interior text and pictured...and then proofing will be done for the book as a whole. I can't wait. Tom Duggan, President and Publisher of The Valley Patriot newspaper, will be having one of his staff members do a book review when it is ready. I hope other newspapers and media follow suit, not for monetary gain, but for raising awareness.

image - Personal Files

Princess Bride Revisited - Prepare to Pray

        "Hello. My name is Kathleen Laplante. You killed my Father's Son. Prepare to pray."

That is my spoof on a popular quote from the movie Princess Bride.  I am being silly, but there is some truth to it.  Jesus was killed and we must continue to pray.  In one form or another, our lives can become prayer, especially during Lent.

Prayer is one of the three stabilizing legs of the Lenten season:  prayer, fasting, almsgiving.  “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40) is the famous phrase the disappointed Jesus says to the Apostles, when they fall asleep on Him that foreboding night.  We may fall short like the Apostles, but the point is to strive to make all things prayer.

Monks are familiar with that concept.  Prayer is their life and they have a lot to teach us.  Once a year, the monks at St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, MA, bring in a speaker/leader and go on retreat for a week.  Last October, Fr. Cassian of San Benedetto in Italy was the speaker.  He gave ten conferences which had the common thread of "praying without ceasing".  The list is below.

Please go to CONFERENCES ON PRAYING WITHOUT CEASING for the links.  Fr. Cassain will be revealing one conference per week, every Friday, until just before Holy Week.  The first four have already been posted.

1. 2/7: Praying Without Ceasing (49:00)
2. 2/14: Praying the Divine Office: The Connection with the Desert Tradition (44:12)
3. 2/21: Praying the Divine Office: Nihil Operi Dei Praeponatur (Let Nothing Be Preferred to the Work of God) (45:51) [included handout]
4. 2/28: Lectio Divina (41:24)
5. 3/7: Personal Prayer; St. John Cassian (46:07)
6. 3/14: Personal Prayer; Lessons from the Rule of St. Benedict (36:49)
7. 3/21: The Minor Orations; The Eucharistic Prayer (41:42) [included handout]
8. 3/28: Mass Euchology in the Roman Canon (38:35)
9. 4/4: The Mass Chants (46:37) [included handout]
10. 4/11: The Ordo Missae (The Order of the Mass) (44:00) [included handout]

Wishing you a Blessed and Holy Lenten Season,
Kathleen +



image - http://osbnorcia.org/2014/02/21/conferences 

How Do We Glorify God? Lent and Facebook

I gave up Facebook for Lent.  I suspected I was not benefiting proportionately for the amount of time I was spending on it. 

I have never been one to bash Facebook.  I like it and can see the social benefit from it.  I can also see the negative impact, as mentioned above and expressed by a few of my friends for other reasons.

Six+ weeks later, though, through Lent, after Easter, I find that I am not especially excited or drawn to get back on Facebook.  "Too Much Information" is what I concluded with my Lenten sacrifice this year.  It's information that I would never know if we lived in a more grounded, let's talk face-to-face society.  Information that does not strengthen my core.  Information that distracts me when I see people I have only heard about on Facebook.  Information that does not necessarily glorify God.

During my sabbatical, I found that I became much more productive and prayerful.  Without the distractions of Facebook's News Feeds, and Wall Posts, and Photos, and Ads, I turned to praying more and writing more.  I do both anyhow, but my Lenten sacrifice led me to doing more with material that had more potential to spread the Good News.

I decided to write the story of my father's suicide for the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide (AFPS).  My story reached two pages pretty easily, and then it reached seven pages, and then thirteen, and then twenty-one, etc.  I eventually contacted AFPS and found out they only allow two pages per story on their web site.  After talking with them, and having other people review my manuscript, I realized I had a book on my hands, even if it is a short book.  So that is what I focused on during Lent and after.

It has been very rewarding.  I have deepened my relationship with Jesus and the other two members of the Holy Trinity, and I have reconnected with family members and with my own sons - and with friends and friends of friends.  My religious conversion and my beliefs are part of the story I am telling about my father's suicide, so the Word comes through in a variety of instances.

I am not saying I will stay off Facebook forever, but my Lenten sacrifice has shined new light on the busy-ness that easily evolves with Facebook, busy-ness that is not necessarily worthwhile.  I have enjoyed my sabattical and will continue to do so as long as it lasts.  If nothing else, I can repeat this next Lent.

Kathleen

image - http://www.jumpfirst.com.au/castles/funhouse_slide_castles.aspx
http://brookwoodcovenant.com/glorify-god/

Mystery of the Crucificied Christ

For quite awhile now, I have been praying to God in front of a Crucifix, asking Him to draw me more deeply into the mystery of the crucified Christ.  That's daunting to me.  I immediately swell with fears that all kinds of catclysmic things are going to happen to me and to others.

After two years, no cataclysmic events have unfolded, but those fears still surface.  Thankfully, I have been graced with perseverance, because I keep bringing the prayer to God in an attempt to unite myself more closely with Jesus.  Smaller scale insights have come.  Whether they are directly attributable to this prayer of mine, I cannot tell, but I keep seeking God.  It's comforting and has helped me to feel better about my spirtual life.  I do think I have grown in my connection to Our Lord's Passion.

During Lent, my efforts have more meaning, and this Lent, two sentiments have been deepened in association with my prayer and the crucified Christ.

Jesus falls a third time

The first relates to my not doing so well with keeping up with a couple of my Lenten promises.  (Ouch, it hurts to hear that I have not been keeping up with a promise, never mind that it is a promise to Jesus.) My spiritual director suggested that I start over and do it for the remainder of Lent.  When I realized Jesus did just that when He fell those three times on His way to Calvary, I was re-energized to try again.

 

Jesus in Gethsamane

The second relates to my cutting back and/or eliminating television and Facebook during Lent.  I am more productive when doing these things, but I am also more lonely.  My friends on Facebook, and the characters in the regularly scheduled TV shows I watch, do provide me some level of companionship, as silly as that may sound.  One day, when I was contemplating my loneliness, I remembered Jesus' loneliness while praying at Gethsemane.  Now I offer it up and my spiritual life has more purpose and meaning.

I hope your Lent is bearing many fruits in the name of the Lord.

In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
Kathleen



images - http://damancd.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/insights-from-matthew-lessons-in-agony-from-gethsemane/
http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/prayer/stations.htm

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Worcester, MA - Lent Begins!

Melkite Greek Catholic Forgiveness Vespers & Lenten Potluck

Lent Begins!

Sunday, February 19, 2012
5:00 PM

 

Our Very Own Pantocrator

 

 

For more information, click here

We are also on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Our-Lady-of-Perpetual-Help-Melkite-Greek-Catholic-Church-Worcester-MA/125900079977

You do not need to have a Facebook account to view this page.

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Revisiting Friday Penance

Have you given your Friday penance* serious consideration recently?  Is it truly suitable to you?  For example, if you abstain from meat every Friday, but you are a vegetarian, is your abstaining really a sacrifice?  Are you really fulfilling the spirit of the penance requirement?

It may be time to do something different.  If you are vegetarian, but you love ice cream, maybe it would be more fitting to abstain from ice cream on Fridays.  Give it some thought.



* In the Eastern Catholic Church, there are two days of fast and abstinence, Wednesday and Friday.  And the practice is to abstain from all foods that come from animals (meats, poultry, dairy products, eggs).  Read more about it here. 

image - www.feed132.photobucket.com

Herman Cain, Planned Parenthood and Foolocracy

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Reaching back to founder Margaret Sanger's original eugenics mission with Planned Parenthood, potential Presidential candidate Herman Cain discusses how her mission is still being carried out today. No, he does not hope that government funding to Planned Parenthood continues.

Herman Cain

Herman Cain:  'It’s Not Planned Parenthood -- No, It’s Planned Genocide’

I applaud Mr. Cain and hope he will run for President, but not everyone agrees with me, or him.

Presidential Hopeful Cain Declares Planned Parenthood Formed “To Kill Black Babies”

On another note:  How is your Lent going?  I already fell off the wagon with one of the things I gave up.  I modified it as I often do after the Ash Wednesday week trial period.  I start out way too zealous.

Kathleen

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image - http://foolocracy.com/2011/03/presidential-hopeful-cain-declares-planned-parenthood-formed-to-kill-black-babies/

Really?

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I found the paragraph below in the bulletin at the local Roman Catholic Church.

LENTEN ROCKS

Rocks are one way that nature speaks to us in prayer.  The teenagers of our parish have been busy gathering and preparing rocks for the parish during Lent.  Baskets of rocks can be found throughout the church along with explanation sheets about the rocks.  The teens would like to encourage you to take a Lenten Prayer Rock.  Some have pins so you can wearit and others are plain to be carried in your pocket.

Really? I ask with incredulity.

Sorry for my cynicism, but with New Age programs like this, is it any wonder

that the Catholic Church is having a hard time maintaining Her identity?

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image - http://www.journeyifc.com/modx/refractions.html?start=10
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Melkite Greek Catholic Forgiveness Vespers This Sunday

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In the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church, Lent is celebrated somewhat differently from the Roman Rite.  I will be posting something about the unique services throughout Lent, beginning with this Sunday's Forgiveness Vespers.

Forgiveness Vespers is the first service of Great Lent.  It is offered by parishioners at the beginning of Lent for the Eastern Christians of the world.  Immediately following Vespers, a vegan meal is offered (mainly pot luck of those dishes Eastern Christians will enjoy during the Lenten period). Eastern Christians will abstain mainly from meat, dairy, or fish during the next seven weeks. 

This Sunday, March 6, 2011

5pm

Forgiveness Vespers

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

and many other fine Eastern Catholic churches

Interested individuals are invited to attend Vespers and the potluck afterward. Feel free to bring a vegan dish to share.

To follow OLPH on Facebook,  click here

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image - OLPH collection
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