Lent 2015: Week 5 Reflections

Photo by Maureen Kennedy Macel

"A Good Life" presents a special Lenten blog post by Maureen Kennedy Macel (Week 5):

Day 30 Thursday March 19 - [S] Draw a picture for someone and mail it

RO: Three simple ways to better follow Jesus: (1) Know Jesus - Immerse ourselves in the holy word. // (2) Talk to Him - Speak to Him. He is a real person who truly cares about you. He doesn’t just love you, He actually likes you, and He wants a relationship with you. // (3) Listen to Him - Quiet our hearts and allow Him to speak to us. We are a unique and unrepeatable creation from God. And so God will speak to us in a very unique and unrepeatable way, that only we would know and understand. // We have to give Jesus the opportunity and the time to speak to us after we speak to Him.

2 Samuel 7: 4-5A, 12-14A, 16

I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.

Romans 4: 13, 16-18, 22

Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

The drawing I was inspired to make ended up being a message:

I love you.

         -God

Day 31 Friday March 20 - [Friendship]

RO: He came so that we could be with Him forever. With Joy He embraces the cross. With joy He heads to this hour of glorification. Though he knows the suffering that it means He joyfully embraces that cross. // He is choosing every step of the way to become a living sacrifice. He is choosing every step of the way to win us back. Because He values you and He values me. You are worth it. You are worth it for Jesus to embrace the cross because that’s how much He loves you. Though the hour that was coming for Him brought pain, agony, and even death - you were worth all of it. Because that hour also meant that you would able to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Wisdom 2: 1A, 12-22

“Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they knew not the hidden counsels of God

John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

“You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

Funny how we often can readily forgive our friends for transgressions simply because they are our friends.  But whoever offends us but are not our friends we hold it against them and do not like to forgive.

Pray that we can treat each person as though they are are friend.

Day 32 Saturday March 21 - [F] Eat very simple meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

RO: You have a soul and that is the thing that God values in you. He values all parts of you, but He values your soul the most. Do you ever think about what your soul can do for you? // Get in touch with your soul because that is the thing that God wants to get in touch with you. // God desires and loves us so much that he will even get rid of the biggest stumbling block - death itself. // Human death will not stop Him from loving you. // The equation is Jesus - Jesus has to be that bridge between death and eternal life. Get in touch with your soul and let Jesus enter more deeply into your soul. Because if He is there you might die on earth but in Jesus you will have eternal life.

Jeremiah 11: 18-20

searcher of mind and heart

John 7: 40-53

Never before has anyone spoken like this man.

I saw God in a piece of bread yesterday.

Let me explain what I mean:

I was at the St. Bernard Fish Fry with Bridgette, Dan, a friend of a friend who I just happened to run into, and someone Bridgette just met a few days ago.

As I put my styrofoam plate down onto the table it cracked and sent my roll rolling to the floor. I hadn’t planned on eating it since I hadn’t gotten anything that would go on the bread (I really don’t know why I was given bread). And so it wasn’t disappointing that it fell onto the floor.

I was about to throw it away and then I thought that Nora would like to feed the birds with it so I put it in my pocket. Later on during our conversation I jokingly offered Dan my pocket bread and took it out of my pocket to give it to him.

This person that Bridgette just recently met hadn’t eaten his food, and Bridgette asked if anything was wrong. He didn’t quite know how to explain why he wasn’t eating, but since I had recently shown that I had pocket bread he was able to say that “Like her I will put it in my pocket and take it home.” After that Dan offered up his to-go box and that was that.

But in thinking back on it he had seemed a bit uneasy and perhaps was trying to figure out how to inconspicuously not eat his fish and get it into pocket without us really noticing. But since there were four of us there it was kind of difficult to do either of those things.

And that is why I saw God in a piece of bread - All of this happening was meant to put this person at ease.

Day 33 Sunday March 22 - [S] Write someone a Thank You note

RO: Jesus had to die because that is what the Father planned. This is how God was going to redeem us and restore us in relationship with Himself. He sent Himself here in the form of a Son to take on the weight of sin and the punishment for sin and to die, lay down His life, so that we can be healed. // He had to die to save us.

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;  I will be their God, and they shall be my people. // All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD

Hebrews 5: 7-9

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered

John 12: 20-33

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. - John 12: 26

I wrote someone a Thank You note on Tuesday. Not that I should feel “Thank you’ed” out but I kind of do? Yes, that’s accurate. Be that lame or not (it is) - it is how I felt today and so I just couldn’t bring myself to writing a Thank You note. ...Until 10pm when I forced myself to. (PS. I wrote that last sentence before actually doing it as a motivator to stop being so pathetic.)

Originally my reflection was going to be about what I wrote about (thanking the strawberry farmer and picker for delicious strawberries), but then I realized this:

God wants us to be thankful. He wants us to look around at His creation and appreciate it and remember that everything in the world is not here because of chance, but because He created it. How thankful we should feel for everything every day! How much beauty and wonder there is to be grateful for!

(Like Mr. T never said: “Be grateful for God is great, fool!”)

When we give thanks it should be heartfelt and genuine. We can’t force ourselves to be thankful when we don’t feel it, but what we can do is practice giving thanks. Be conscious of the beauty around you and remember where that beauty comes from - God. When we take the time to be conscious of what God has given us we give ourselves more opportunities to feel genuinely thankful. And when we practice feeling thanks we practice giving thanks and we become better at saying “Thank You” - not only to God but also to everyone around us. Spreading Thanks spreads Love and God is Love.  

There are so many things to be thankful for! Yes, there are challenges. We can cite examples of things we aren’t thankful for. But if we turn those things and struggles over to God and still work to see the good things there is always something we can be thankful for.

Even if your time with God and remembering to be thankful is one sentence long (like saying “Thank you God for this beautiful day!” when you see the sunshine or a pretty snowfall or a fresh rain) that is still an encounter with God and you make God happy.  

Let us go forth and be thankful. Thanks be to God!

Day 34 Monday March 23 - [P] God

RO: We call Jesus “Emmanuel” - “God with us”. Jesus comes to show “See God is with you. God hasn’t forgotten you. And God wants to save you again.” // If you knew that there was a great power source that was waiting to set you free from all your sin, from all of your distress, why wouldn’t you tap into it? I pray this Lent that you and I can all find the power of God to

Daniel 13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62

O eternal God, you know what is hidden and are aware of all things before they come to be.

John 8: 1-11

Go, and from now on do not sin any more.

God you are beautiful. You have so much love to share that it is eternal and infinite. Let me be worthy of that love. May I live my life according to your ways. May I remember to serve you above myself. Let me remember to see the beauty you put before me. Let me remember to see the beauty you put within me. Let me remember to share that beauty and love with others. Amen.

Day 35 Tuesday March 24 - [F] Do not use toys that require electricity or batteries

RO: Jesus comes to us. He longs to be with us. // In our greatest weakness, our greatest disease, longings and wants, Jesus comes to us and longs to be with us. Let us accept that reality; allow Jesus to come and be with us. And let’s take that and go and be with others. Go and love others. Go and share Christ’s love with other people.

Numbers 21: 4-9

with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses

John 8: 21-30

Jesus said to them, “...the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

Hearing the news often makes me feel sad. It can be a reminder of how precious and momentary life can be. Life is but a moment of time. Life can end at any moment. But that shouldn’t cause us to cower in fear. Though we die we can find eternal life in He who was sent into the world so that we may live. So how are we living our lives to ensure that though we die we will find eternal life?

Day 36 Wednesday March 25 - Learn something about another country or culture

RO: [TBD]

Isaiah 7: 10-14 8: 10

The Lord himself will you you this sign: the virgin will be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us!”

Hebrews 10: 4-10

We have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all

Luke 1: 26-38

Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

“Say ‘Yes’ to God.” is often said. But today I heard it phrased this way: “Give God your Yes.” (That’s Fr. Joe, by the way.)

How beautifully put! I don’t think I can explain how hearing it that way made (and makes) me feel. But there was just something about it.

Perhaps because with “Say ‘Yes’ to God” this seems to imply we are waiting around for that clear moment when God gives us the opportunity to say “Yes” to Him and that we’ll be able to recognize that moment as a clear “yes or no” decision point. But that is not how God works. Those opportunities don’t come with God on a puffy white cloud speaking in a loud voice saying, ‘Hey Maureen, it’s God. How about doing this? Yes or No?”. Wouldn’t that make saying “Yes” to God so easy? (Yes!) No, these moments come in the form of an old man carrying groceries and recognizing he could use a ride home. Or in helping someone pick up something they have dropped. Or holding the door for the person behind you.  

“Give God your ‘Yes’” I think I am drawn to this because it implies I need to be active, that I have a never ending supply of “Yeses” to give out, and God is always there just waiting for my “Yes”. And the “Yes” is the clear choice. There really is no debating “Am I going with a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ right now?” I’m not waiting around for God to clearly say “Hey Maureen, it’s God. Yeah, this is me trying to work here and calling on you to do your part. Are you in?” Instead I am here, ever-present for the Lord. Ready to jump into action. I am looking for God speaking to me in all things and so I actively live to give God my “Yes" -- “Yes?” “Yes!”