Commentary
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Taking Small Steps to a Better You
How about 1 hour today without internet, social media, etc… You choose the hour. During that hour say a special prayer for the Christians displaced from the Nineveh Plains. Click here for today’s readings: Jonah 3:1-10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that He had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. Jonah, the whale, Nineveh, the king. Today, don’t worry about Jonah and the whale, but Jonah the preacher of repentance. He preached and Nineveh listened – even the king who led the way. No one is exempt from Lent’s call…
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Jesus Teaches Us to Pray
Say a short prayer about something you care about (two tweets worth). If it isn’t too sensitive and personal, maybe you could post two tweets. It might help somebody else. Click here for today’s reading. Matthew 6:7-15 “Don’t babble like the pagans…This how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven…” Did you know the Our Father is about two tweets long. Maybe the reason God wanted us to be short in our words to Him is because he wanted to make sure we left time for him to speak to us. When at a loss for words, use the Our Father. When using our own, keep it…
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My Guide to Unwimpy Fasting
This fasting thing is complicated. If you doubt, check out the first of today’s reading. It’s gotten a bad name in many religious circles and yet it’s made a real surge in some secular ones – go figure. In Catholic circles, in my less than humble opinion, we’ve become whooshes on fasting (I include within fasting what is technically abstinence). Here’s the “rigorous” demand placed on Catholics for Lent: 1) Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent no meat. Big deal – only cheese pizza, shrimp, chocolate cake and sushi on 6 of the 40 days. Don’t get me started on those who ask and those who grant…
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Hang with God on this First Lenten Thursday
No ashes or other give-aways today – not even a name for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday. So just quietly hang with God and rejoice in his invitation to live and love: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “Today I set before you life and prosperity… Choose life then that you and you descendants may live by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice and holding fast to him.” Click here for the full reading.
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#MakeLentGreatAgain2017
After His baptism, Jesus went into the desert where he prayed and fasted for 40 days and spent this time in silence. At the end, he was tempted three times by the devil. Check out the full details in the readings for the First Sunday of Lent. This part of Jesus’ life serves as a prototype of Lent. You may have heard about a little day called Ash Wednesday – and if you haven’t you’ll be reminded of it because many of your neighbors and business associates will have a black smudge on their foreheads. A little Catholic info: Churches burn the palms from last year’s Palm Sunday mass and…