The purpose of Lent is for Purification and Enlightenment. Identify your issues, and work to alleviate them by prayer. meditation and taking them to God.
On my Prayer Table, I have this reminder: First Principle: Relax and see yourself (myself) already in possession of the good that you (I) desire. Second Principle: Let go and let God.
And remember it will take time to change and that there will always be a new changellage, a new platform. It seems that when we achieve a gold, another one arises.
Red Skelton, who had the number one show on television, said, “It was harder to stay there than get there.”
This is also true of Purification, especially when partnered with Enlightenment.
In Lent, Especially Catholics, usually give up something as a penance and to bond themselves with Jesus, who gave His life. This is very good, but we should also consider giving up anger, resentment, gossip, rage putting others down, and replacing them with kindness, generosity, joy, peace, love, reaching out, being a blessing to all we come in contact with.
All our days, but especially Lent, should prepare us for our death, our transcendence into life after our earthly life. And make no mistake, just as there is life after our incubation in our mother’s womb, there is life after our earthly life. Our only reason for being here is to get there.
The way we live our lives here will determine where and how we will spend eternity. In total love and joy, or in total pain and suffering. The way we live our earthly lives will be greatly enhanced in eternity. When we meditate on our death, on our mortality, we should be motivated to change – to enjoy silent time with the Crucified Lord Jesus Christ, as Jesus did with His Heavenly Father in the desert for 40 days and nights.
Meditate on the life and Passion of Jesus. This is where He opened the Gates of Heaven and gave us Eternal Life. To reject what He did for you and me is to condemn ourselves to an eternity of pain and suffering like we have never felt here on earth.
Look at the Crucifix
If you would like to know God……Look at the crucifix.
If you would like to love God…..Look at the crucifix.
If you want to serve God…..Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder what you are worth…..Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much God loves you…..Look at the crucifix.
If you want to know the need for self-denial and sacrifice…..Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much you should forgive others….. Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much you should do for others….. Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much your faith demands of you in humility, poverty, charity, in every virtue….. Look at the crucifix.
If you want to know what unselfishness and generosity are….. Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how far your own unselfishness should go to bring others to Christ….. Look at the crucifix.
If you wish to live well….. Look at the crucifix.
If you wish to die well….. Look at the crucifix.
And may I add If You want to spend eternity in Heaven with your Eternal
Father…. Look at the crucifix.
As you look at the crucifix, become emphatically aware of the pain, the suffering, Jesus went through. Beside the visible wounds, there is the rough surface of the wood behind Him. The inability to move or stay still without pain. Half of the nerves in the human body are in the hands and feet, and be aware that the human nature was being painfully crucified.
And we must take into consideration the Agony in the Garden, where He saw all our sins. From Adam and Eve to the end of humanity. The horrendous beating at The Pillar, the humiliation and Crowing of the Piercing Thornes.
The Carrying of the Cross, that weighed 80 to 100 pounds. The distance covered was over 600 yards and then nailed to the cross and hosted up to increase His Pain and humiliation.
All of this was done by Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to open the Gates of Heaven, give us eternal life and save us from the jaws of hell.
Be a Blessing to all You Come in Contact With,
Rick Herring