Give it away…

On this Holy Monday, I have sat and looked back at my journey through lent. The preparation of cleansing my temple, my soul for Christ and Christ alone, to Imitate Him. The first few weeks were challenging, and after overcoming the challenges of denying myself of my wants and my needs and learning to set true time aside for Christ, the next phase of Lent quickly began…..the temptations of my wants and needs that I had worked so hard on to overcome; they began to creep in trying to still the peace I had found.

As you know Lent is a battle of the soul. Christ is wanting to instill light in you and of course darkness wants to prevail, constantly tempting the soul. But as Catholics we know the battle all to well, or at least we should; recognizing the battle is half the challenge, isn’t it. Then all of the sudden without announcement that peace the peace that only Christ can give in the battle of hours and the days sets in, our souls begins to rest. Because we know that as Holy Week draws near we know that Christ will always be OUR SAVIOR! He love us and was obedient to the Father and continues to show us the way….the courageous surrendering merciful journey of love.

So shouldn’t we be, obedient? Shouldn’t we open our hearts to HIM, shouldn’t we want to be near HIM? Through the beginning of time God has always wanted us near HIM and Christ was no different that he left us HIMSELF in the Eucharist. Let’s think about that for a minute… HE LEFT HIMSELF! Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. There are many Eucharistic Miracles and the one that comes to mind is the Miracle of Lanciano – truly amazing!

He calls us to be still in Him, He calls us to surrender and to trust in His Mercy and Love. In the Diary of St. Faustina 369 Christ says “there is more merit to one hour of meditation on My sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood”; and in the entry 370 it reads that “Beneath these rays a heart will grow warm even it it were like a block of ice; even it it were hard as a rock, it will crumble into dust.”

I pray this week we all may find the time to sit with Christ in Adoration, I pray we may have the strength and courage to surrender and accept God’s will.

The following prayer is in the book The Imitation of Christ, written by Thomas À Kempis The Contemporary Translation by William C. Creasy with a Spiritual Commentary by Dennis Billy, C.Ss.R

“Most kind Jesus, grant me your grace so that it may be with me and work with me and remain with me to the end. Grant me this: always to desire and to want what is most acceptable and pleasing to you. Let your will be mine, and let my will always follow yours and be in perfect accord with it. Let what I want always be what you want, and let me not want anything that you do not want. Grant that nothing in the world might be as important to me as you are, and for your sake grant that I may serve you with deep humility and love, caring little for recognition or honor. Grant above all else, that I may rest in you and that heart may find peace in you. You are the heart’s true peace; you are its only rest. Apart from you everything is hard and uneasy. Only in this peace that is you, highest and eternal Good, do I find sleep and take my rest.”

+ Amen.