New

As lent is fast approaching, I am reminded how God gives us the grace to renew our lives. It is during the forty day period before Easter Sunday that Catholics sacrifice and eliminate pleasures in order to express to God our desire to grow spiritually. Each year the Lenten season is a beautiful time to reflect on Gods love for each one of us. It is a time of conversion, a time for growth and a time to start a deep conversation with our God. During the Lenten season we are called to turn the eyes of our hearts away from our self and to gaze upon him. To focus on Jesus, he who gave his life for us to have eternal life.

Lent is a time for healing as well. Through prayer, penance and silence we are transformed interiorly. Lent is a lot like anything in life, such as excercise. You truly get out what you put in. If you commit to taking this Lenten season seriously and muster up the fortitude to finish what you started on Ash Wednesday whatever that may be, such as cutting out needless hours on social media, not watching or reducing tv or even something as simple as giving up sweets… know that it is important to finish what you started. It is only in getting outside our comfort zones that we grow. In lent we face the self imposed desert absent from creature comforts. Lent is a beautiful period of time from God in which he draws us more deeply to him.

Listen and hear him within the silence of your heart. Silence is the language of God. It is in silence and sacrifice that you will be made new.

The realization of how limited we can become in our capacity to love by confining ourselves to worldly pleasures and bad habits is revealed during lent.  The forty days before Easter Sunday will help enable you to feel how much more capacity you really are capable of.

I encourage you to go to adoration frequently this lent. Especially if you are searching for truth, searching for answers…it is in his presence that you will receive truth because he is truth. You will receive healing. Maybe even a healing you weren’t even aware that you needed. I promise you, you will feel his Peace and healing in your life through the Eucharist. It’s through the Eucharist that God lives and finds a home within our mind, heart and soul. I personally have found great healing from going to daily mass. I understand the miracle of the Eucharist but even in light of my comprehension, what my heart has felt through daily communion has left me in awe of how powerful Gods love and healing is and it’s there for the taking. I have felt such an abundant joy from frequent adoration and communion in my life even when faced with uncertainty. I cannot even come close to describing fully how much our souls need to be in his presence. How much we need to be blessed sacraments to the world.  We carry Jesus out like a burning torch of love and light that radiates from our souls when we leave mass after receiving him in a state of grace. I can only tell you, you must experience it for yourself and then you will know…

Our hearts long to be totally and utterly satisfied by his love alone, that is why they are restless in all other things.

How are you going to spend this Lenten season? Will you make a commitment to pray every day? You don’t have to do something big, just start small..pray and ask God where he wants to lead you. You will be amazed at the transformation within yourself if you commit to at least one thing this lent and follow through on that one thing all the way to Easter Sunday finishing what you started.

So whether you will be striving to spend one hour less watching tv each day, giving up alcohol or dedicating time to workout each day. Know that God will bear much fruit within you and it is the mere heartfelt intention that he sees in you that brings him joy. Always remember God loves you as if you were the only one created, he will never leave you or forsake you and only asks for your love. So be receptive to the ponderings of your heart and my prayers are with you for a blessed lent and a glorious Easter!