Lenten thoughts 2015

 Some signs of Lent in my house . 

 In conversation with God is one of my favorites .

Sebastián's face as he looked at himself in my phone aka mirror 

Me and half of My children , the others are going to noon liturgy 

       

Marked for Salvation (from Magnificat )

  

 

At the beginning of Dante's Purgatorio, the Pilgrim discovers seven Ps scratched across his brow─one for each of the seven deadly sins (peccati). Through his laborious climb up the seven-storied mountain, one by one, the P's are wiped away. It is the image of a soul saved, but still struggling free of sin's sevenfold lack of love. 

     Lent charts us on a laborious course up a similar Mount Purgatory. And at the base today we too find our faces begrimed. Our ashes make public confession that we stand stained by our wicked deeds. We have earned the dusty death wage of sin. Yet, like the guilty Cain, who received a mysterious mark from the hand of the Lord, this sign we wear is also God's seal of protection (cf. Gn 4:15). We are branded today with the sign of the cross, as sheep of the Lord's own pasture, so that the devil (who would make on us his own mark of the beast) will know to keep his thieving hands off. The sign of the death due for our sins thus becomes the emblem of hope─if we believe in the cross and repent in dust and ashes. Ezekiel foresaw this mystery in vision when he saw the saved, who grieve over the sins of Jerusalem, having an X written upon their brow (Ez 9:4).

 

Reflection based on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

  Father Anthony Giambrone, O.P.

  

Heavenly Father, may the indelible mark of the cross sealed

upon me at Baptism be engraved more deeply upon my heart.

May my penance this Lent help put 

Today's suggested penance: 

Spend fifteen minutes or more praying the holy name of Jesus.

  

 

May God fill your Lent with his presence 

and lead you to a renewed experience of his love.