I have already written a recent blog on this site for Lent. However, I thought it would be good to again mention that the beginning of lent is coming this Wednesday, February 17. What do you want to accomplish this Lent? Is lent just a time of penance and without any joy?

Perhaps a better first question would be: what do you want God to accomplish in your heart this Lent? After all it is God who is at work within us. We do not accomplish our salvation on our own. That is God’s work. I myself hope that God will help me this Lent to above all "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." I hope that at the end of this Lent God will be more a part of my life and I will be more conformed to the Gospel and living the Gospel in my daily life. That means that, first of all this Lent, I must give up anything that might be taking me away from God, or at least keeping me from growing more in the living of the Gospel. In truth that means, first of all, giving up sin or all that might lead me to sin.

While it would be good if I would lose some weight this Lent, that in itself is not the purpose of Lent. If I were to lose weight but not grow closer to God, nothing would be accomplished. As St. Paul says in his 1st Letter to Corinthians, if I do anything it must be accompanied by love or it is nothing.

Lent is not just a joyless time when we give up things that we normally enjoy. If we give up such things it must somehow help us to grow in love of God and our brothers and sisters or it accomplishes nothing. Of course if I am so attached to something that it has become, as it were, a god for me then I do indeed need to give it up as it is keeping me from the love of God as well as my brothers and sisters. Giving up something, in other words, can be a good way of learning to say "no" to ourselves, of learning to say "no" to sin.

In the end Lent is a time of looking forward to the joy of Easter. How can we rise with Christ unless we have learned to die with him? How can we rise with Christ unless we have learned to love him? To me, that above all, is what I am trying to accomplish this Lent. I can of course only do that with God’s help so I hope that God will accomplish that within me this Lent. Whether I give up some food or drink or other pleasure, or spend more time in prayer, or read a holy book, or give alms, I want to grow in Christ. Hopefully by Easter I can say a little more truthfully with St. Paul – "I have been crucified with Christ, and it no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."

God bless you this Lent, 2010

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If we went to a Catholic Church this past Sunday, January 31, the 4th Sunday of ordinary time, we heard in the 2nd reading, St. Paul’s beautiful passage on love. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, after speaking in chapter 12 of the gifts that we all receive from the Holy Spirit, today in chapter 13 he encourages us to strive eagerly for the greatest of spiritual gifts. Then he says: "But I will show you a still more excellent way."

The more excellent way that St. Paul speaks of is of course LOVE. I remember in one of my early years in the seminary at Conception our religion teacher, I believe it was Father Bede Scholz, asked us to memorize this chapter where St. Paul speaks so eloquently of love.

The Christian community at Corinth evidently had a number of divisions in it. Their hierarchy of values tended to foster factiousness. Paul points out that whether a person has the gift of prophecy, or of tongues or whatever gift, these are nothing without love. Even almsgiving and martyrdom are nothing without love. As Paul points out, prohecies, tongues, knowledge, have limits, but love does not. Love perfects knowledge. Paul tells them that even the clearest knowledge is like a shadow compared to love. He urges the Corinthians to put aside childish ways and pursue love as the greatest wisdom. Only love lasts.

There are other spiritual gifts, but love is the one essential gift that characterizes the community worthy of the name Christian. Love is the criterion for judging the relative value of all other gifts, since all gifts are given for the sake of building up the community.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests…" Love will prompt us to forgive, it will teach us to hope. Paul is saying that the divisions in Corinth would not exist if the community had been mindful of the primacy of love.

What about us? Does love exist in our community, in our family, in our world? We can only look at ourselves and ask whether love is the most important in my life.

I would suggest that each of us read again that second reading from last Sunday’s Mass. (I Cor. 12:31-13:13)

Lent this year begins on February 17th. While that is still a few weeks off, it is good to begin thinking about what practices would be good for us to take on this Lent, 2010.

To quote from the Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 49:

"The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent. Since few, however, have the strength for this, we urge the entire community during these days of Lent to keep its manner of life most pure and to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times. This we can do in a fitting manner by refusing to indulge evil habits, and by devoting ourselves to prayer with tears, to reading, to compunction of heart and self-denial."

While probably not many of us are able to live according to the ideal St. Benedict presents for Lent on a daily basis, the implication of St. Benedict is that what happens in Lent also applies in principle throughout the year. The reward of any Lenten observance of course has nothing to do with outward display but with the reward of the kingdom. So it’s a matter of motive. If I let it be known, or even brag about how much I fast, or give to charity, it becomes something public and even competitive. What really makes a good Lent is interior transformation. We are to "rend our hearts and not our garments," as St. Paul reminds us.

Lent always points toward Easter and so there is a note of joy in the Lenten season. During the Lenten season we look forward with joy and spiritual longing to Easter.

So as we all look forward to the Lenten season we need to reflect what extra works would be good for me to take on this Lent. What would help me to transform my life, to turn more to Jesus Christ, to know his love? St. Benedict urges us to devote ourselves to prayer with tears, to reading, to compunction of heart and self-denial. Father Michael Casey says that compunction is a dual sensitivity. It places before us both the reality of our sinful condition and the urgency of our desire to be totally possessed by God. It is precisely the comparison between what we are and what we could be that constitutes the triggering cause of compunction.

So let us use these coming weeks to prepare ourselves for the Lenten season. This week, probably about Tuesday, January 26, I will be mailing you a letter and a card for renewing your oblation. Sometime during the year you are asked to return signed card to the oblate office. If you would like to have a blessing on your Lenten works, you are welcome to send them to me. However, if you wish them to be returned, please include a stamped self-addressed envelope for this purpose.

Thank you and God bless you.

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In our little brochure that we have here at Conception Abbey as an introduction to the oblate life, we mention that the oblate should "participate frequently in the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. Oblates who are not Roman Catholic should be faithful to their denominational beliefs and practices." I would include with this that an oblate should be active in the parish to which they belong. In other words I see the Oblate of St. Benedict as taking a leading role in the life of the parish. Not that the oblate should try to come across as holier or better than others in the parish but he or she should "participate" in the life of the parish.

Each of you will have to do that of course in your own particular way. A few of the oblates are permanent deacons. They of course are usually given a specific parish and way to be active in their parish life. Other oblates volunteer as lectors at Mass, as communion ministers, as ushers etc.. But, of course the most important way you can be active in the parish is by "participating frequently in the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation." In other words when you participate in the Eucharist and sing and pray with the community then you are truly oblates.

Some of you I know try to participate in the Eucharist on a daily basis. For others that is not possible because of your work and other duties. What I think is important is that our oblates and others in the parish, know that you are not withdrawing from the parish but rather that your association with Conception Abbey and the oblates is a help for you to live a good Christian life and to take an even more active part in your parish life.