OLBH Bulletin Cover for March 8, 2020, 2nd Sunday of Lent
Okay, I know what you are probably thinking – why is there a picture of a toy here? In case you don’t know what this is, it is a transformer, a toy truck which can be ‘transformed” into a person. And that is the point. In the gospel reading, we hear:
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
Another word for transfigured is transformed. And Lent is a season for each of us to work on being transformed and grow closer to Jesus. If you haven’t yet made any Lenten commitments, or even if you have, this is for you.
A couple weeks before the start of Lent, I received the monthly email newsletter from CatholiCity. This is a website I been reading for many years and have order many of their materials to give away to others. It starts off saying “Don’t waste another Lent.”
“We only have so many years on this earth and to waste another Lent (you know who you are—I’m guilty, too) is just plain subpar for a believing Catholic. Challenge yourself spiritually in 2020. Choose difficult mortifications. Give up your most favorite things. Fast more often than ever before. Commit to prayer or daily Mass or Good Friday devotions like never before.” It continues to warn us against being lazy this Lent. It challenges us to “Be More Catholic Than the Pope”.
And if you are thinking “I Can’t Give That Up!”, how do you know? If giving up something will help you gain eternal life in Heaven, isn’t it worth it? As he says “You Are Not Dead. You are not a corpse. You are breathing. Put your index finger into your bellybutton. Dig. That’s lint. This is Lent. And it is Lent 2020, and it shall never come again, …. Lent is about two billion people around the world changing how they live for forty days so we can all grow closer to Jesus.”
He goes on to list one or more things we can do, here is just a partial list of them:
- Pray the Rosary every day.
- Receive Communion at Mass every day.
- Go to Confession every Friday or once a week.
- Pray the Family Rosary every day or once a week.
- Pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday.
- Pray in silence 15 minutes a day.
- Make a Eucharistic visit every day.
- Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day.
- Fast on bread (or potatoes) and water one to three times per week.
- Read a spiritual book.
- Give a painfully large donation to charity. (Try adding an extra “zero” when you write the check.)
- Donate to charity instead of buying something for yourself.
Read the article and see the entire list at https://www.catholicity.com/message/2020-02-13.html.
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