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Brothers and Sisters:

A few years ago my parish had a Lenten study of the Scriptures that we would be reading each Sunday during the Fast. Some of the material we were given didn't seem to move the group so the next year I took a stab at writing a series for our use. I'd like some feedback from you and maybe some suggestions for some other questions.

Thanks.

BOB

Matthew 4:1-11

1. What is the significance of �bread� here? Is it just literally to be understood as food?

What is the �word that comes forth from the mouth of God�? What makes this �word� so nourishing that it is better than food for the body? Is this the case for you?

2. The temptations of Jesus are to use material means (bread), fame (public display), and political power (kingdoms) to accomplish His mission. Remaining faithful to the Father�s Will was not easy for Jesus.

How are we tempted in the same way? How difficult is it for you to be faithful at home, at work, in the community? Does faithfulness conflict with tolerance? How might this happen? What does this say about the nature of the Father's Will for Jesus? For us?

3. Jesus shows us that faithfulness is a struggle and a growth process.

Does this passage show you that? How? Does this make it easier for you to continue in your own struggle to be faithful?

Meditation: Take a few minutes sometime this week and reread the Gospel passage. Ask yourself how faithful you have been in your life up to this point. Don�t beat yourself up. Ask the Lord to lend His helping Hand to your efforts and to help you amend your life to growing in faithfulness.

No comments?

How about this one?
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Genesis 12:1-4
1. What�s in a name? What�s the significance of receiving a new name?

We were given a saint�s name at Baptism. Why?

How can someone�s name be a blessing? Don�t blessings only come from God? What about the Name of Jesus? How can each one of us be a blessing to others in a similar way?

2. Abram was asked to leave his father�s house and his native land.

Does this sound like the message Jesus gave to the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22?

A house is sometimes understood to be a symbol for something else. The Gospels say that Jesus was �of the House of David.�

Does this shed a different light on what it is that God is asking Abram to do by asking him to leave his father�s house and by changing his name?

Does this kind of action take a �leap of faith�? Why?

What do you think Abram�s father and family thought when he said goodbye and left�never to return? Are our �leap(s) of faith� sometimes incomprehensible to those close to us? How so? Can this type of change in us cause Jesus� prophecy to come true: that the time would come when a man�s worst enemies would be those of his own household? How so? Or maybe not?


Meditation:
Each of us has a name. What does my given name mean? Do I live up to the underlying meaning so as to give glory to God by my life?

God has asked each of us to leave behind those dear to us and enter His House through our baptism and confirmation. He has called us to live a holy life. Have I done that?

Have I encountered God in my faith journey? Has it changed me? If I haven�t, can I invite Him in now?
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I use these questions as an extended examination of conscience during Lent. It's part of my positive spiritual fasting. After doing all the dietary fasting, I fill in the extra time with spiritual reading and reflecting on these questions. They don't make me feel comfortable, but they do remind me of how far I've got to go and how generous our God is--loooong suffering.

In Christ,

BOB

I'm working on this passage, praying and reflecting--bringing together what I've been taught and what I've read. Now I need some of you, my brothers and sisters, to add some feedback. I don't have a lock on this Mystery of God coming to seek us out like the Good Shepherd looking for the lost sheep.

I continue to pray that the Lord will bless your Lenten pilgrimage and draw each of you closer to Him.

BOB
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Matthew 4:1-11

5. What is the significance of �bread� here? Is it just literally to be understood as food?

(This comes from a lengthy reflection I did for training and sensitizing Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.)

We bring to the altar gifts that are fully human�bread and wine. These are two avenues of nourishment that are uniquely human and extend to all cultures. Every culture has some bread that is central to its life; every one has some wine that it makes. Bread is referred to as �the staff of life� in literature and wine is a drink that has both celebratory and medicinal purposes. Wheat is the finest flour that can be had and as a gift it is the best grain produce that one can offer. Grape wine, too, is a fine gift. Beyond the actual gift is a deep symbolism that we must also keep in mind. All of us come to the family of God and have gifts to offer. And God takes the best of each of us to build up His family. During the course of our lives, the husk that we all have�the tough outside�is worn away and God brings out the best in each of us to gift the other members of the community. And this is how bread is made: the grains are milled together and the husks thrown away, leaving the fine flour. Water, the symbol of life and the symbol of Christ is mixed with the wheat flour and a new bread is formed: the Latin Church uses unleavened bread as a reminder that, like the Jews who used unleavened bread during their Passover in Egypt, we, too, are on a pilgrim journey and we are in haste to build our relationship with the Lord, knowing that the Day of the Lord is closer to us than when we first made our profession of faith. The Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches use leavened bread to remind believers that God the Son came here to defeat death and rise from the dead to bring us new and eternal life. Both of these realities are important for our spiritual development. We are on pilgrimage, Christ came to save us and defeat death--both physical and eternal death (eternal sin)--we will rise like Christ was raised from the dead.

We are privileged to be in the family of the Catholic Church--the Church confessed in the creed of the Council of Nicea and by all those who trace their entry into the family of Christ through the undivided Church that composed this creed--because of our being �dipped��baptized�into Christ, into His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We are privileged to be built together into the Body of Christ, the Church, as the gifts we offer are built together from many grains or many grapes. God takes the best each of us has to offer and builds us together into the Body of Christ, the Church, which is, with Christ Jesus as its Head, the acceptable new man intended when God created the first man, Adam.

What is the �word that comes forth from the mouth of God�? What makes this �word� so nourishing that it is better than food for the body? Is this the case for you?

The Word that comes from the mouth of God is Jesus, the eternal Logos, the Word that He says �Heaven and earth will pass away but My Word will never pass away.� What makes Jesus Christ so nourishing is that He is the source of our life, He sustains our life, and He is the focal point of our life both here and forever. Sadly, there are many times that I forget His infinite nourishing relationship, given in Baptism, but He always seems to call me back and get my attention�to get me refocused again and again. Baptism gives us the first brush with the life eternal that we will possess fully in eternity. We begin to live in two places at once we are baptized�in this mortal world and in the eternity of the Kingdom simultaneously. Once we begin to let this wonderful mystery sink into the depths of our thinking and move it from mind to heart we should be people doing cartwheels. God has so loved us that He cannot wait to give us the Kingdom�He has to do it now even while we are on pilgrimage and in this life of testing. He continues to feed this eternal life with Himself, with His Son, with the Life-giving Body and Most Precious Blood of the Only-Begotten One. Life needs nourishment: we have human food to keep the body going; we have Christ to keep our spiritual life going. What a gift!!!

Third Sunday of Lent

Readings Exodus 17:3-7
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-42

Exodus
1. What do you know about water? Why is it important? Can you live without water?

2. What is the significance of the rock? Relate the rock to our Lord calling Simon Peter "Rock" (Matt 16:18-19)

3. What could be a possible meaning of water flowing from a rock?

John
4. What is a well? How is a well better than flowing water especially in arid climates such as the Holy Land?

5. What is the "water" Jesus gives us? What does he mean by "living water?" Does He give that to us today? How?

6. How are people changed by their experience with this "living water?"

Relate this change in people to Jesus' speaking to a woman. How
are all future relationships between people changed because of
Jesus; because of our experience of Him; because of our
commitment to Him?

Remember the epistle wherein Paul tells us that in Christ there is neither male nor female, slave or free . . . "

Romans
7. When the rock was struck, water poured out. Water is poured out of a bucket. A bucket is a vessel.

Paul says that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.

To this point, all three readings have alluded to pouring, outpouring, or pouring out. Underlying this type of action is an implication of generosity. Pouring is not the same as "dribbling" or "decanting." What might we see here as a theme regarding God and His relationship to us?

8. Does the Holy Spirit play the role of vessel for the love of God to be poured out into our hearts? (Understand heart here as that whole space inside our body/tent wherein resides our memory, intelligence, and will--the three parts of us that separate us from those who are dead.) How does the Holy Spirit work today to pour out the love of God into our hearts? Is there a visible vessel that continues to be the channel through which the Holy Spirit can work in our lives?

IO. Water can become deep in a well. It may only be a short-lived
stream if it pours out of something. Is the Church a rock or a well
or to be understood as both?

11. Is there a connection between the generous outpouring of water from the rock in Exodus and the generous outpouring of Christ's own life, spoken of by Paul to the Romans, and the living water Christ spoke of? What is your understanding of the relationship between these three events? Is there one?

12. Does the Church give us the living water Christ spoke of to the Samaritan woman? How?

13. We are given life by Christ's saving sacrifice on the cross wherein He poured His life out for us to the last drop of blood and water. He set up the Church to be the source of living water for all of us. He intended that we would never be spiritually thirsty again. The Church nourishes us by word and sacrament so that we may "eat this bread and never hunger' and drink the living water and never thirst.

Does this give you some sense of the peace Christ intends us to
have and that Paul speaks of in the first sentence of this portion of
this epistle?

14. How does all this speak to you?


Meditation: Before going to Liturgy on any occasion, take a couple five minute periods. Look closely at a crucifix. Ask yourself about such things as the generosity of Christ, His outpouring of His whole life for you, the nourishment He left us in His Church. Ask yourself if you are still spiritually hungry or thirsty. Look at your own use of the spiritual banquet provided by the Church. Ask yourself if any of your spiritual hunger or thirst is being satisfied. Why or why not? If not, is it because of some impediment that you have within you? If so, what steps do you have to take to get rid ot it (them)?

Brothers and Sisters:

Great Lent was the period in the early Church when the catechumens were prepared for full initiation at Pascha. The other members of the community prepared with them and renewed their own Baptismal promises. With that in mind, I'd like to pose some questions along that line.

A hymn that continues to haunt me from the Byzantine Liturgy is rendered in one translation

"FOR AS MANY AS HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST, HAVE PUT ON, HAVE PUT ON CHRIST."

What does it mean to be baptized into Christ? What does it mean for you? Is it something that fills you with any sort of gratitude? What is Baptism all about anyway?

We have few adults who seek Baptism today but there are so many "unchurched" people out there. Are we missing out on telling them something about this Mystery?

Are there some obligations that go with Baptism or is it just something we do for infants?

What does it mean to "put on Christ"? Is it related to being a mirror of Him to the world? To others in our own community? What might cloud that reflection? Do I think about this when I walk out the door every morning? If not, why not? Am I spiritually focused on me and my own relationship with Christ to the exclusion of telling others about Him? Is this some sort of cultural thing--keeping my faith or even the Faith to myself so as not to offend and be labeled a "fanatic"? The Lord tells us He will acknowledge us before His Heavenly Father if we do the same before others. He also says He will not do so if we don't acknowledge Him before others. Should that make us stop and think?

Am I joyful about having been baptized into Christ and having put Him on like a garment?

With Baptism comes Chrismation in the Byzantine tradition. There is nothing in my humble opinion like the very smell of chrism--something like a reminder of Heaven; a smell that seems to lift one's spirit above the mundane.

Am I aware of the great dignity that has been conferred on me by Chrismation? Am I aware of the fact that God has made a covenant with me and made me a permanent part of His Family, the Church, whether I am faithful or not? Do I realize that He has sought me out from among all the billions of people walking around--hand-picked me--to be part of His Family?

Has any of this crossed my mind at all? Lately? Ever? When I prepare for confession this Holy Season might this be part of my realization that I really need to look deep inside to see how awful sin actually is? Should my repentance be deeper when I look at all that God has done for me and how I've thrown it all back in His Face?

St. Seraphim of Sarov tells us that all our ascetic efforts are THE MEANS to acquire the Holy Spirit. When we were chrismated, the words "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" were repeated as we were anointed. God sealed us with His Covenant and His promise. Do I realize what it means to kick the Holy Spirit out by sin?

Some say that we may be the only Bible others ever read by the way we live our lives. Can someone tell me from secular literature or the unchurched around me?
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These questions don't make me comfortable when I look inside here where I live.

BOB

1 SAMUEL 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a

1. What is it that we see when we look at someone?

2. How is what we see different from what God sees?

3. What does God see when he �looks into the heart�?

4. What do we see as a cultural influence working in the prophet�s first encounter with Jesse�s sons?

5. Jesse thinks that the Lord�s �anointed (one)� is before him. Later the Lord tells Samuel to physically anoint David with his horn of oil. What do you think is the significance of this? What is the significance of being anointed?

6. Once David is anointed by Samuel physically and ritually, the Spirit �rushed upon� him. What does this suggest to us Catholic and Orthodox Christians, given our experience of the Holy Spirit, in Chrismation?

7. There are many who claim that the Holy Spirit is at work in many places that seem alien to us as Catholic and Orthodox Christians. We see so much of this on charismatic programs on TV. How are the displays shown on TV different from what we experience in the Church? Relate this to our call to "discern the spirits."

Matthew 21: 1-11

The reading from Samuel speaks of seeing beyond physical appearances. We know already the outcome of the Great and Holy Week: triumphant (welcoming) entrance at the beginning of the week turns to calls for crucifixion at the end. The experience of Jesus may be an experience of the crowd seeing only the physical side of what they expect from a Messiah. The nature of the human heart�our frequent falling away from a commitment--may be linked to this idea of seeing only the physical appearance and not understanding the deeper (spiritual) meaning that underlies it. We have to ask ourselves about our own �fickleness� toward Jesus and our Baptismal and Confirmation commitment to Him.

1. Do you ever become disappointed at someone or something that does not meet your expectations when the appearance would suggest that he/she/it should do so? How do you react in such a situation? Do you find yourself turning against them or re-thinking your estimation of them?

2. Do we see that type of turning of the heart in our society today? How and in what ways?

3. How is this phenomenon�sudden, fickle turning of the heart�different from the firm commitment we are called to in the washing and anointing of Baptism and Confirmation?

4. When you prepare for the Mystery of Confession, do you get below the acts of sin normally confessed and see the fickle heart that is in need of radical reform and constant metanoia?

St. Seraphim of Sarov says


1. Does my fasting, extra prayer and quiet time, additional attendance at church services, almsgiving, Bible reading, and other other positive and negative mortifications during Lent make me more like Christ? What does it mean to be more like Christ? Am I more loving? More patient? More understanding of my neighbor? More willing not to listen to gossip? To negative reports about another?

2. Has my spiritual growth this Lent made me more likely to forgive first and not hold a grudge? Have I let go of long-held hurts that may have been baggage for me and been dragging my spiritual life down? Has Forgiveness Sunday become for me a way of life or was it something I did then and moved on from?

3. Have I begun to do the hard work of praying for those who REALLY hate me? Who REALLY want to see me fail? Have I forgiven as Jesus did from the Cross--"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

4. Have I done one "random act of kindness" for someone who could not repay me in any way? Have I done something kind for another that no one knows about except God, even the one who received my alms?

5. St. John Chrysostom says that it is better to eat meat than to eat the flesh of the brethren. What have I done to build up my parish community this Lent? Am I a "back-biter" who talks behind someone's back to their detriment, to the scandal of others in my faith community and the larger community in which I live?

6. When Pascha arrives will I lose all this changed life and return to being the same person that I was on Forgiveness Sunday? If so , what has Lent meant--REALLY? Do I make an idol of the disciplines I undertake for this Holy Season? An idol that I will cast aside because my heart is not converted, but merely the same fickle one I started Lent with?

I have decided to answer you because these are AWESOME thoughts to meditate on. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, A SINNER!

May God bless you my dear, dear brother in Christ our Lord,
Alice

Dear Bob,

Anyone who can bring Alice back here is really living the spirit of the Great Fast!

You made me really think.

In fact, I have had more difficulty praying now than ever before together with a slothful feeling that I need not repent of my sinfulness.

But this has led me to the realization that prayer for others really needs to take centre stage. And I've been numb to the people I'm now in contact with who need prayer.

That is the direction in which my Fast is turning for which I'm grateful to God!

Thank you for making me consider this by writing it out on this forum.

Alex

Alice:

The point of these meditations is to make me look at myself and see how impossible it is for me to attain to the glory of God by myself. In fact, it's impossible. But He takes the first step toward us and stirs us toward Himself by the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Even when we kick the Spirit around by sin, God does not abandon us because of the Covenant He made with us at Baptism. There is a story in the Desert Fathers of a monk who was tempted to deny God, his baptism, and his monk's vow in order to have the hand of the daughter of a pagan priest. The priest asked the demon he worshiped what he should demand and these three things the Devil wanted in order to have the man's soul. Well, the priest went back to the monk and told him that his god told him the monk's God refused to abandon him even when he had denied God, his baptism, and his vow. The monk repented. The message here for us is the same: God will never abandon us, even when we are unfaithful because He is Faithfulness personified and He cannot be untrue to who He is.

God may allow us some dry time and we may feel abandoned, but that's to make us mindful of our built-in hunger for Him--something hard-wired into us as human beings. As St. Agustine said, "our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

I'm convinced that the second attribute of God--beyond His infinite love for us--is His vast humility. He doesn't come riding in on some big horse announcing "Here I am, look at me." Instead He comes to us humbly in the Eucharist and in so many other ways we often overlook--speaks to us in the Scriptures; sometimes speaks to us prophetically in the words others speak to us (ever get one of those "WOW" reactions when you've pondered something someone said to you and at the time didn't have it sink in?); hits us with seeming miracles we aren't aware of but which others say "how'd you miss the bullet there?" You get my drift.

God is madly in love with us but He cannot draw near to a proud, arrogant heart. Only one that is broken and sends out a "Lord, I need You" draws Him near. It's true that He chastises those He loves, but that is the pruning of the fruit Jesus speaks of when He reminds us that to be pruned means we are ready to produce more fruit.

So Lent is a time to realize our limitations, root out the weeds of the great and small sins we love so dearly and cling to so tightly. But it's also a time to remember that a person is rich, not by what he has but by what he can do without. We can do without so much of this world's vain promises and empty pleasures, but we cannot do without the living water God gives us in and through His Church, the vessel through which He pours out His love, His grace, His life to each of us. Lent is a time to remember our limitations, to remember that we will die, and that we have a home for eternity that we hope to live in after our earthly pilgrimage. Lent is also a time to remember that we are in this Family together, that we walk by faith TOGETHER and that in so many instances we walk three-legged with another--he picks us up, we pick him up; sometimes we need help, sometimes another needs ours.

If you get there first, ask it you can save me a seat. On the other hand, keep praying for me so I'll get in before the gate swings shut.

BOB

Alex:

A quote in the Desert Fathers says that prayer is a tremendous struggle for us until our last breath. Gotta say that's so true. I understand the numb feeling, the dry periods, the times I can't seem to get one positive word out in prayer, the times when I have an actual aversion to anything holy or prayerful.

When I can't I know there are others who are praying for me--that's what the Communion of Saints is all about. Thank God for that. That's why if we make it to the Kingdom, it will be because of the Mercy of God, the intercessions of the Mother of God, the Saints, the Angels, those in the Communion of Saints, and LASTLY by any feeble efforts we make to cooperate with the Grace God sends us. Because we always waste that last no matter how much we seem to benefit by and with it.

BOB

Alex:

Another thought came to me about difficulty in prayer. There is a story in the biography of the Cure of Ars about a man who went into the church every day and sat in the back pew. He just seemed to be looking at the tabernacle. When the Cure asked what he was doing, the man said, "I look at Him and He looks at me."

Take a page out of this notebook. Sit in front of an icon and just look at the Lord and let Him look at you. When you're in love sometimes it doesn't take words.

BOB

John 11: 1-45

1. What is illness? In the Scriptures, what is it a symbol of?

2. Mary anointed Jesus. Why do you think it was His feet she anointed? How does this relate to the other anointings we read about in Scripture?

3. Jesus makes reference to light and darkness, to day and to night. What do you think He was referring to? Does it say anything to you?

4. Jesus makes reference to sleep and to death. How does He turn the world�s understanding of both these things upside down for those who follow and trust in Him?

5. What is the �glory of God� that Jesus refers to? Is it different than what we think it is or should be? How so? Is this difference similar to the ideas the people of Jesus� time had about how the Messiah would come and what he would do when he came?

In St. Matthew�s Gospel above, Jesus refuses to use the means the Enemy offers to accomplish His mission. Is this a hint of what the �glory of God� is all about?

6. We have a role reversal here in Mary and Martha. When Jesus came to visit once before, Mary was interested in nothing but sitting at Jesus� feet to listen to Him. Martha was concerned about household hospitality. Does the death of Lazarus demonstrate something deeper here? Could it be that Martha has had a faith conversion and now comes to Jesus for �the better part� while Mary has had her budding faith shaken so that it does not carry her through the tough parts of life?

7. Jesus went to Lazarus� tomb. Scripture tells us this whole event moved Him deep within His being and the experience �greatly disturbed� or �perturbed� Him. People often ask at funerals, especially those of young people or tragic ones, �where is God in all this?� Does this reaction of Jesus suggest where God is when someone we love dies? Can you take something out of this to carry with you? What?

8. Why does Jesus pray first before bringing Lazarus out of the tomb? He is God, why doesn�t He just call Lazarus out on His own authority? What lesson is there in this for each of us as adopted sons of God?

9. Jesus tells us �I AM the resurrection and the life.� What is this all about? Why the emphasis on this personal assertion? Remember in the Old Testament Moses told the people that �I AM� sent him. Only God can state emphatically that He exists. All the rest of us came from some source�physically from parents; spiritually from God�s gift of faith. Examine your relationship with Christ�the process of �communion� that translates �coming into union,� an experience and process of relationship building. How does this Person Who calls Himself �I AM� make me understand my own resurrection?

10. What is resurrection about anyway? Will I rise? What do I know about it? Am I living as if I believe in it or is it just something we talk about on Easter and at funerals�something like telling children about Santa Claus but winking to each other about it?

Meditation: Jesus talks about resurrection and that it resides/lives/exists in His
Person.

What is this all about for me? God tells the people through Ezekiel (Chapter 37) that He will open their graves. Do I believe that God will open mine--literally? Am I living spiritually or physically in the sense St. Paul talks about? Is it something I�ve given some thought to? Where am I with Christ, the faith, all this?

Scripture has it that the Holy Spirit groans within us. Does this Resurrection thing hit me deep in my being? How deep? Or is it all Easter baskets filled with all the things I couldn't eat during Lent? Or is it just egg hunting games for kids? New clothes to wear because it's Pascha or Easter? Is it all on the outside?

Have I taken some time between all the extra church services and just sat quietly and let some of this sink in? Or have I rushed to cram some extra church services into an already too busy life and been satisfied with that?

We all will die alone. Am I ready to face my Lord and account for my life? Is the Resurrection part of my whole thinking in this area?

Do I look at the whole of life from the door of the empty Tomb? Would the things that normally drive me nuts matter so much if I viewed them from the vantage point of the empty Tomb's doorway? Would people be able to push my buttons so often if I had this outlook? Would there even be any buttons to push--or at least far fewer--if I viewed the world from the doorway of the empty Tomb?

Jesus Christ went through death and rose from the dead. He did so for many reasons but one was to let His followers know deep in their being that He is in charge both here and herafter. Do I live as if I believe this? Really believe this? If not, what can I do with what's left of the Great Fast to get on track with being a true believer?

My father once told me that a man is a success in life no matter how much or how little he has accomplished if he can face Christ and say, "Lord, as far as I am able I have not compromised Your teaching, but have, with Your grace, done as much as I could in my weakness. Have mercy on me." Seems to me to be sound advice.

Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed in Christ, St. Paul says. The reality of the Great and Holy Week is upon us. The Mystery that is our salvation is unfolded in the liturgical cycle that the Church places before us in this most holy of weeks.

One writer suggested in a liturgical reflection I read some years ago that the events of our salvation are events that we can enter and participate in: something like being in a time machine and being transported to the actual time and place. Before the Face of the Father all of our time, space, and distance becomes one with eternity--the eternal now that has no past and no future but is an everlasting NOW.

Can I see with the Church's guidance the great value God has placed on me? Can it sink into me that He would have sent His Only-Begotten Son to suffer, die, and rise JUST FOR ME if I were the only lost sinner ever created? Do I in some feeble way repent and offer back some small "thank you" for this tremendous gift? Or am I still kind of flinty of heart after all the Lenten preparation--prayer, fasting, extra services, extra spiritual reading, almsgiving?

One of my favorite Gospel passages is from St. Matthew that describes the Resurrection. A great earthquake occurs, an angel descends from Heaven and rolls back the stone, and the tomb is empty. Does the Resurrection so rock my world that nothing is the same for me again--ever again? Have I emptied the tomb of my own self-righteousness this Lent so that the Risen Lord can enter and take hold of and pilot my life from this point on?

If I saw the risen Christ, with all His Holy Wounds covering His Body but shining with the Divine and Uncreated Light first seen on Mount Tabor, would I be moved in my inmost being? Would I be able to be the kind of fearless witness that the Apostles became on Pentecost after seeing Him and spending the next 50 days with Him as the Church leads us to understand life after Pascha?

Has this Lent become part of my life now so that weekly fasting, prayer, and almsgiving will no longer be something I forget? Or am I on my way to becoming the same kind of person I was on Forgiveness Sunday?

The night is far advanced. The Day is at hand. The Fathers of the Desert called this present life the night and the Day is that Great Day of the Final Judgment. Have I built my relationship with Christ so that I am more focused and more ready to meet Him--to give a good account of the talents He has given me for the building up of the Kingdom IN THOSE AROUND ME?

May the Lord Who is going to His voluntary and ever-memorable Passion for our salvation, Christ Our True God, have mercy on us and save us for asmuch as He is gracious and compassionate and He loves each of us with a love beyond our understanding. AMEN.