Forty days of Lent:
40 days in the desert;40 days for the great flood;40 years in the desert before entering the Promised land;40 days ,Moses,Elijah and Jesus fasted.
Lent means spring.
An invitation to turn from our own selves from sin and to come together in community.
Self-Denial is the way we express our repentance.
We pray , we fast and we give alms
Pope: "Fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live.To intensify the custom of private and communal fasts---reading the Word of God,praying and engaging in almsgiving."
The Pope wants to give to the poor what is set aside through our fasting.
Time to empty ourselves to be filled by God.
Fasting from smoking and drinking;fasting from violent and sexual pictures;fasting from condemning and dismissing others.
Lent is a time to feast on other good things..
Fast from discontent,anger,bitterness,self-concern,discouragement,laziness,suspicion and guilt.
Feast on gratitude,patience,forgiveness,compassion for others,hope commitment ,truth, and the mercy of God.
Lent,hence , is a time of fasting and feasting.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Lent
Today, we celebrate the Frist Sunday of Lent.The reading from the Gospel takes us to the time Jesus spent in the Desert.
Forty days of fasting were forty days of intense growth in prayer, attachment to God, of strengthening of His love of his Father and of deeepning the awaress of the nature of his mission.Jesus knwew that the ways of the world were not going to be His ways.
No role as a wonder worker, or as a ruler or as a person craving for popular appeal.It is going to be the way of love, of pure love, of laying down life.
In our own lives, thetemptaion will come very strongly to follow the ways of the world--to do popular things, to use all means to get rich, never to be forgivng or to be merciful.We may be urged to ignore the needs of the poor and the suffering.
Grand mansions and roles of authority will be attracting us.We will be told by our friends that suffering is a punishment and there is no value in being with the Lord.Religious life, according to the thinking of the world, is a sham.
Today on this day of Lent , let us resolve to avoid the ways of the world and follow the Lord on his path of love and compassion.
Forty days of fasting were forty days of intense growth in prayer, attachment to God, of strengthening of His love of his Father and of deeepning the awaress of the nature of his mission.Jesus knwew that the ways of the world were not going to be His ways.
No role as a wonder worker, or as a ruler or as a person craving for popular appeal.It is going to be the way of love, of pure love, of laying down life.
In our own lives, thetemptaion will come very strongly to follow the ways of the world--to do popular things, to use all means to get rich, never to be forgivng or to be merciful.We may be urged to ignore the needs of the poor and the suffering.
Grand mansions and roles of authority will be attracting us.We will be told by our friends that suffering is a punishment and there is no value in being with the Lord.Religious life, according to the thinking of the world, is a sham.
Today on this day of Lent , let us resolve to avoid the ways of the world and follow the Lord on his path of love and compassion.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Denha
This blog will carry points of sermons for each coming sunday according to the Syro-Malabar Liturgical Calendar.
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