So soon it's another Lenten Season and I cannot believe how much I have grown spiritually. I look at me and I see a new me.
Looking back, I really think the many years of Lenten participation I have been opportune to have are responsible for the spiritual growth I feel and perceive today. It gives me great joy to know that my little efforts at doing the will of God, my father on a daily basis can be rewarded with double portion grace that helps me to live a better life.
Yes, the grace of God has done it for me. I experience a lot of peace within me, in my family and work relationships.
Sure you want to ask me how the Lenten seasons have helped my spiritual growth. Let's look at someone who is on a diet course. During the course, the person adheres to all the diet rules conscientiously and was seeing the effects, excellent loss of weight which was commended by all the people around. Some people even wanted the secret to this enviable look.
As time went by our friend gradually slips back to the old lifestyle and diets. People around started commenting on the weight now growing at even a faster rate. Our friend was first worried but later became complacent saying “it’s the age, I can't help it"
Back to me, what I tried to do over the years was to take God and God's ideas seriously. I tried to participate in the Lenten Duties actively, and after Lent I try to keep in focus the principles that Lent encourages us to live. I started fasting more, observed the Friday abstinence, became more cautious in my evaluation of others (I became less judgmental of others.) Then I noticed my relationships got better and yes, there was this feeling of inner peace.
I must confess I could not have achieved all these on my own, but for His grace. I was always praying for the grace to be Holy. I don't know if I can describe myself as Holy. No, not yet, but I am faithfully struggling and working to be. One day by God's grace I will be described as holy. This is my faith.
You! Do you believe you can be holy. I believe you can if you ask faithful for His grace which He has already made available to you. You only need to ask.
Take a good advantage of this Lenten Season to draw closer to your God. Actively participate in the duties and pray for the grace to keep the principles in focus daily, weekly, monthly and yearly till you start having the feeling of perfection. Then you as well as I will be winners in Christ our saviour.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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