Talk to the Sisters of St Joseph and Compassion on the Subject of Lent


Lent a joyful season
Many people ask me why I call Lent a joyful season. There are many reasons for this nut I want to look at four reasons why I think Lent is joyful and these three reasons we see from the call to do three things, prayer, fasting, charity and repentance.
Prayer:
At the heart of every Christian is the notion of prayer: We as people are made for prayer and should take a serious part of the day. “Prayer should therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace.” This is taken from the rule of St Benedict and I think a useful tool. When I was gone to Quarr abbey I have loved the idea that nothing takes anything longer than 30 minutes apart from prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Even a visit from my friend who is a monk never exceeds 30 minutes. So prayer should be central after all as we hear in the psalms we long for the lord. Our longing for a relationship with the Lord is vital. We need to spend time in our rooms where the Lord is with us. This room could well be our own hearts where we long to see the Lord.
I suppose the other thing that we need to think about is what we do when we are in our own room with the Lord. The one thing that I find is that I get distracted very easily. So I get a little imaginary box and place the distractions I have in that box until I have finished my prayer then I can take them out and deal with it after prayer.
Fasting is one of those things that I think with Prayer is really quite difficult to do. We start with good intentions but fail pretty quickly. I think many feel that fasting is a negative thing. I think though that to gain some understanding in the pain of the cross we can share in that through or to abstain from certain foods. But I do feel that we can change what feels like a negative into a positive. Fasting helps us through prayer to get closer to the love of Christ. I found this quote on fasting that seemed to help me a great deal
 “Suggestions for Fasting and Feasting: Fast from discontent; feast on thankfulness. Fast from worry; feast on trust. Fast from anger; feast on patience. Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others. Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayers . Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness. Fast from discouragement, feast on hope. Fast from media hype, feast on the honesty of the Bible. Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence. Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.” 

Anonymous 
To fast then is to appreciate the coming feast of Easter. It is to set our mind on other things.

Lastly a brief word on charity:
“Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.”

Through fasting and prayer comes charity to see our fellow human being as worthwhile in the sight of God and so give them due respect. IF our good acts just for ourselves then we are doing something wrong. If we do it for the glory of God then we are doing our charity to show the face of Christ to others.  But, if that charity does not include ourselves then it is also inaffective for Charity must begining with looking also after oursleves.

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