The Spirit of Medjugorje

"Dear children! In this time of grace, pray with me for the good to win in you and around you. In a special way, little children, pray united with Jesus on His Way of the Cross. Into your prayers put this humanity which wanders without God and without His love. Be prayer, be light, and be witnesses to all those whom you meet, little children, so that the merciful God may have mercy toward you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

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What is Lent All About??

By Fr. Ray Donohue

      We have started a very special time in the life of the Church! And, since we ARE the Church, the living Body of Christ, we should know just what we are experiencing!
     I could go into a history of Lent, how it got started and developed, but I would rather spend this space for now reminding us what it means for you and for me.
     Lent is given to us by Holy Mother Church to assist us in a most Holy Time. All time is holy. Time is a gift from God to us, one of the infinite gifts He bestows on us. We fill that time with eating, sleeping, relationships, work, vacations, and what could be the most dangerous times we have, idle times.
     We make "Resolutions" on New Year's Eve, and usually by mid-January, many if not all drop by the wayside. Why? Because it is only one day! A lot can happen in one day, or nothing can happen. Lent is so different. We do not make "resolutions" in Lent, we make life decisions. Not for a day but for our life. We mean to change! We make a pledge to ourselves and to God, with His help and the help of our Mother and all the Angels and Saints who give us example and direction and guidance. This "pledge" we make is to be a better person, a holier person, a kinder person. It involves changing our schedules and life styles. It means we are going to incorporate God into our morning, noon and night and in our life situations and relationships, with each other and with God!
     We all need a starting point. LENT is our starting point! Lent is a journey in Faith, a journey with God, daily and often conversations with God and His Saints! I once read: "If you don't fill your life with prayer, you will fill it with anxiety, worry and resentment." I will also add to this, "sin". I tell all my spiritual directees and those who come to Holy Confession to me (and I tell myself this everyday) not to try to "fit" God into your schedule, but work your schedule around God.
     I find I am a morning person. I am up every day about 6:00 or 6:15 a.m. I take Dublin outside, come back in, make my bed, and go to my "prayer-chair" where I keep my Breviary, a Rosary, a Crucifix, my spiritual reading, and my favorite prayers which I pray every day. Note, I do not "say" my prayers. I "Pray" my prayers. I begin my prayers in quiet, and then say, "Almighty Father, I place the Precious Blood of Jesus before my lips before I pray, that my prayers may be purified before they ascend to your Divine Altar". (This is a prayer prayed and written by Saint Magdalene de Pazzi.) If you are a morning person, spend time in the morning in holy prayer. If you are night person, then pray mostly then, but also, morning person or "later in the day person", pray throughout the day, in the car, on breaks; find some quiet time and pray.

Confessionals in Medjugorje

      When I was a child, my mother would tell me to make my bed. Why? I was only going to sleep in it again later that evening! But, I would make it because my mother asked me to do it. Simple, right? It taught me so much. I got into the routine of making my bed in the morning as part of my morning ritual. Discipline is so important to every Catholic. To this day, making my bed is still a part of my ritual. It makes things neat and clean and in order. Do we do this with our own person and relationship with God? Things that are neat and clean and in order make us feel good about ourselves and life. It starts us off on a very good start! Just as my mother asked me to do this, it was because she wished me to do it. She had a reason. So, I did it.
     Our Mother in Heaven is a very important part of our Lenten journey! Our Mother has reasons for asking us to do certain things: Monthly confessions, Daily prayers, Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, Listening to God through prayer and the Holy Scriptures, Extra Masses when we can go on weekdays. Does this sound like Lent? Stations of the Cross are so important. If we cannot attend the Stations at our Church, pray them at home while holding a Crucifix. I promise you, you and your Lenten experience will never be the same!
     But before we do things, we need to ask God, "What do You want me to do this year for Lent?" Lent helps us to put our life and situations, and our relationship with God, in such a way as to make our lives a clean, neat and orderly place for Him to dwell, and for us to welcome Him into this dwelling we call our "self".
     This Lent, be sure to get to Confession at least twice. We need to turn off the TV, cell phones (especially the cell phones), distractions (as we heard on Ash Wednesday, "Go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in private"). We need this one-on-one time with the Lord. He speaks to us and we speak to Him. He listens to us, and we listen to Him. Prayer is conversation, and never one-way. Can you imagine a telephone call where you could only speak and not hear the person on the other end, or hear that person but they could not hear you? Communication is both ways, and prayer is communication. We clean the house, and we need to clean our "house" – our mind, our bodies, our bad habits – and we do so one step at a time and asking the Lord for His help! Bad habits include, but are not limited to: not praying every day, not fasting (either on bread and water, or from TV programs, cigarettes, excessive drinking, gossip, holding a grudge, being mean), coming late for Holy Mass and/or leaving early, receiving Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist in the state of sin, or not in a prayerful way, where we really and truly invite Jesus into our hearts and lives and remember we are now Living Tabernacles ourselves after receiving Jesus. Lent is a time of cleansing! After a workout, or a long day, doesn't a clean fresh shower or bath feel terrific? Lent helps us to do spiritual as well as physical cleansing. We work on getting rid of the bad, and getting used to the good!
     But remember, and this is very important, the devil will try to stop us any way he can! He'll try to discourage us, especially if we try to do something and fail in some way. Don't listen to him. Get right back up and start all over again! As a child, when we were playing a game and it was getting boring or too long or we didn't like the way it was going, we would call out "Do-Overs"! Then, we would simply start all over again, like it never happened at all, and we started fresh again, sometimes making changes to make it better. God is the KING of "Do-Overs"! He wants us and encourages us to make these "Do-Overs" in our lives. He is always open to give us another chance, to start it all over like new. The devil wants us to feel terrible and pulls us down. God never does that. NEVER! God lifts us up to begin with Him all over again! Remember this all during this Lent. Remember it all during your life. But when you make a "Do-Over", make sure you mean business, that you truly want to begin again and do better and better. It will make you stronger and stronger.
     Prayer will help us, the Holy Eucharist will strengthen us, and spiritual reading will open our hearts! If you can, I suggest you read the Passion of Jesus in Mark's Gospel. It is the shortest and First Gospel written and pulls no punches. Mark is blunt and to the point. Begin with Mark, Chapter 14, and go from there. Pray it slowly as you read, and put yourself in there. You can be a bystander, but don't just "read", pray it, and be a part of it. Ask Jesus to show you what He was going through. Put what is going on in your own life with that of what was going on in Jesus' life. Be one with God.
     May we keep each other in Holy Prayer all throughout this Holy Lent. Let's make this Lent the best we have ever had so far, by giving ourselves to God and to each other in service. Pray, fast and be converted. Doesn't Our Lady, our Mother make sense now? She is asking us to make this time special. Can we refuse our Mother? Can we say "no" to God? I will answer that for us all: "NO!" We will indeed open ourselves up like never before. Do everything in the Name of Jesus. Be the best we can, and do it with love because our Mother, Holy Mother Church, asks us to do it. And, if we need to do a "Do-Over" at any part this Lent, we will ask our Guardian Angel and Holy Mother Mary, and our Lord Jesus and all the Saints to assist us. They are all there for us, and we are there for them!
     Know that I remember all of you in my daily Holy Masses and Holy Prayers.
In Jesus and Mary,
~Father Ray