"The power of Lenten practices"

This is the experience of all of us who are "spiritual beings immersed in the human condition."  The discovery of the Divine Presence deep within each one of us brings us into a ever deepening relationship with all that is.  This discovery deepens our reverence for all of creation.  This opens us to responsibilities that are always there but never recognized and so not accepted. The process of becoming who one really is, is the same as giving birth.  Both involve great pain and great joy.  Thank God the pain slowly is lost to memory while the joy lasts a lifetime.  It does take a lifetime to see the joy that comes through the life-giving pain.  Late in life I have come to realize that The Paschal Mystery was the source of that strengthening grace which was essential for my survival.  Now I can honestly own the words of the Preface of funeral Mass of The Resurrection, "death is not an end, death is a beginning." In all new life is already sown the seeds of death, while in all deaths the seeds of new life are to be found. Join me in this looking back and now see  how the power of The Paschal Mystery has vivified your life, in a way you begin see, now. Your Paschal Story is your unique, God's story, to be shared with those persons who will be placed in your life.  For this ever new Paschal life, life not only has to emerge, but to grow and become productive under the guidance of The Creative Power of Love.

Like all life it must be nourished and cared for one moment at a time.  The Lenten journey of prayer, fasting, and the doing of acts of charity is the only way this new  dynamic vulnerable life has a chance to survive.  We are being birthed into an atmosphere that wars against our process of becoming who God has gifted us to be.

The world we live in wants us to conform to a different set of values, based on "power, property, and prestige."  The daily Lenten practices and the belief in our personal, and communal participation in The Paschal Mystery brings about not only new life for us but for all of creation.  The birthings are complementary. WOW!!! God's ever evolving story and our gospel story are one. There is no division here.