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FR. TOM'S CORNER
TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES THROUGH THE HOLY SEASON OF GREAT LENT (March 2006)
It is truly amazing to see the magnificent transformation of our church home. Every wall was cleaned and given a fresh coat of paint. The overgrown shrubs have been neatly trimmed and the grounds have been weeded. Beautiful new light fixtures illuminate our sanctuary. This transformation of our church home serves as a remarkable metaphor for the start of Great Lent.
As we embark on this Lenten journey we are given the unique opportunity to examine and transform our lives, clean up our souls and give focused attention to our spiritual life and relationship with God.
Henri Nouwen once said that every person has been created as a masterpiece by God’s own hands. The problem in life, he says, is that there have been many well-intentioned people who have willingly or unwillingly painted on our canvas. There have been many loving, caring and sometimes not so loving and caring people who have used their colors, their idea of who we should be on our painting. We end up being defined by someone else’s ambitions, someone else’s perceptions, and someone else’s eyes.
The key to life is not to paint over our masterpiece but to faithfully scrape off the old paint, the old definitions, and the old stories that end up defining us in negative ways. Our job is to allow God’s original beauty to shine. Our job is to truly live as God’s beloved daughters and sons seeking the excellent, the pure, the holy and the noble things in life.
Just as we sat back to evaluate what needed to be done to beautify our church, it is time to step back and consider how to tend to and beautify our soul. How can we come closer to God? How can we be more loving to others and allow God’s love into our lives? Our church is calling you to come back home and be healed to be made whole. The simple question that is asked of us is "Do you want to be healed?"
If you want true healing, your true mother, our church, is asking you to rededicate your life, to re-orient your direction, to set sail on the waters to salvation. Our church in her wisdom gives us time to prepare, she gives us the holy season of Great Lent.
OUR CHURCH is asking you to consider cleaning your soul through the sacrament of confession. Our church is inviting you to come and lay anything that has been bothering you, anything that is causing you pain and suffering, losing sleep over, or keeping you from God, to come lay it at the feet of Jesus in confession.
OUR CHURCH is inviting each of us to make prayer, fasting and almsgiving a priority. Just like any relationship on earth cannot grow without communication, love, attention and understanding, we must do the same dedicating our focus to living the Christian life. St. John of Krondstadt says we should live our live as if God is by our side every moment of the day encouraging us, loving us and desiring to guide our path.
OUR CHURCH is asking us to take care of the physical temple through fasting. We are also called to give to others the gifts we have received. What a wonderful opportunity for us to generously give to the local food bank, to IOMC in support of Edwin Joseph Pier’s mission work in Guatemala or to other important charitable causes.
Throughout Great Lent, our community will meet each Wednesday gathering for Presanctified Liturgy in a time of prayer, mid-week reflection, and to share a simple Lenten meal together. This is a reflective time to meet in prayer and receive the Lord. On Friday evenings, we will sing the beautiful Akathist to the Theotokos. I encourage each one of you to participate in these special services as well as committing time each day for personal prayer and reading Holy Scripture.
Great Lent can be an important time dedicated to clean-up and giving attention to our spiritual life and examining our own temple. We can make the decision, to be either a bystander, simply watching others do the work - or join in and make a difference that will change and transform our lives. Let us make the commitment and walk together throughout Great Lent. |
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