ASH Wednesday & IU
Ash Wednesday has always been a very special day for me. Since I was a little girl and my grandmother used to take me to get the ashes on my forehead which I walked around with all day and was very careful NOT to brush them off! It was supposed to be a cross on my forehead and I was always disappointed when it turned out to be a "smudge" instead of a cross! Every time I looked in the mirror I would say to myself, "remember Patty, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return". Remember ...one day you will meet the Lord...you must be prepared.
Today I ponder on what Ash Wednesday really means to me now other than just the beginning of Lent....which is preparation for Easter. And what is Easter? Easter ...the promise of the Good News....of eternal life.....of the resurrection of our Lord. Well for today I will walk around different because I have ashes on my forehead, but what does it mean to me for the remaining 39 days of LENT? It certainly identifies me as a Roman Catholic....but more than that it reminds me that I have an "expiration date" engraved on my soul and one day I will be facing my creator. It identifies me as a christian who is trying to live a life that is following Jesus so when it is my turn to meet HIM I will hear Him say, "well done my good and faithful servant". I don't think I am ready for that yet! :)
Obviously my expiration date has not yet arrived! But I feel a need to follow my lenten practice much better this year in preparation for Easter.
What is there in me that needs to be raised from the dead? What will prepare me to be raised from the dead? What will make way in me for Christ and create room for the mystery of resurrection? In an article written by Pat livingston, she says "Our lives are filled with many kinds of deaths. The ashes are a symbol of this, of our mortality, the death that is part of life; of the sufferings, the sinfulnesses, the deadenings that block love".
In the movie The Incredibles, which is about a family of superheroes who live in an ordinary neighborhood and have been forbidden by the government to use their super powers, when Mr. Incredible picks up the family car sitting in the driveway (seems the powers surface occasionally) a little boy who witnessed this is sitting on his tricycle and day after day he just sits there sttaring toward Mr. Incredibles House. One day Mr. Incredible turns to the little boy and demands:
"WHAT are you waiting for?". In a hushed, musical little voice, the small boys answers:
"I don't know, something amazing, I guess".
Well...this is what I intend to do for my Lenten practice this year. Rather than bracing for more bad news or hiding in the darkness about the world's fights and deaths or worrying about my own precious family and their pain and sufferings, I want to spend the forty days and forty nights with my eyes open and my heart and mind ready and "waiting for something amazing".
I never did well at giving up something for Lent....so I always tried to do something extra like attend mass more often, work at the food pantry, help a friend in need, etc. We also always tried to go to the Stations of the Cross every Friday night in lent. A beautiful service where you walk with the Lord in his passion and death and resurrection. I tried to teach the children about lent and what it means and we used to draw names (just the four of us) and then pray every day just for that person and their happiness and we also had to try to do something nice or say something nice to that person every day without telling them we had drawn their names. It was fun and most always we could each guess who had the luck of the draw and got OUR names! So my lenten practice this year will be to look for surprises...make a gratitude list of all my blessings, open my soul to new life in the midst of the difficulty of my personal family, open my heart, let God work in my life, and WAIT FOR SOMETHING AMAZING.
Now....about IU !!! Well Ash Wednesday started with a trip to a doctor's appointment for Dave. Found out that his white and red counts are still dropping (as expected) and the creatinine level is holding in at 1.5. After the doctor's appointment we went to lunch and then came home for a little while...Dave went to tutor some students and I picked him up at 6:00 and we headed to Lafayette to watch the Purdue and IU basketball game. !! It was great! I was happy because IU won...Dave was sad because Purdue lost! Neither team is all that great this year and so we were just happy to be celebrating Dave's birthday a little early. (This was one of his birthday gifts!). We had never been to Mackey Arena .. and Dave had said he would like to do that sometime. This was the perfect SOMETIME! It was a lovely night. GO IU !! haha. I'll add this to my "gratitude list" for sure.
I noticed when I got ready for bed that just a tiny bit of the "smudge" was still visible on my forehead. What a day to be grateful for. When Easter comes this year, I will be more prepared. I want to turn my heart away from death and open it wide to the the good news and to something amazing that ended death for all of us on that special Easter day.
Today I ponder on what Ash Wednesday really means to me now other than just the beginning of Lent....which is preparation for Easter. And what is Easter? Easter ...the promise of the Good News....of eternal life.....of the resurrection of our Lord. Well for today I will walk around different because I have ashes on my forehead, but what does it mean to me for the remaining 39 days of LENT? It certainly identifies me as a Roman Catholic....but more than that it reminds me that I have an "expiration date" engraved on my soul and one day I will be facing my creator. It identifies me as a christian who is trying to live a life that is following Jesus so when it is my turn to meet HIM I will hear Him say, "well done my good and faithful servant". I don't think I am ready for that yet! :)
Obviously my expiration date has not yet arrived! But I feel a need to follow my lenten practice much better this year in preparation for Easter.
What is there in me that needs to be raised from the dead? What will prepare me to be raised from the dead? What will make way in me for Christ and create room for the mystery of resurrection? In an article written by Pat livingston, she says "Our lives are filled with many kinds of deaths. The ashes are a symbol of this, of our mortality, the death that is part of life; of the sufferings, the sinfulnesses, the deadenings that block love".
In the movie The Incredibles, which is about a family of superheroes who live in an ordinary neighborhood and have been forbidden by the government to use their super powers, when Mr. Incredible picks up the family car sitting in the driveway (seems the powers surface occasionally) a little boy who witnessed this is sitting on his tricycle and day after day he just sits there sttaring toward Mr. Incredibles House. One day Mr. Incredible turns to the little boy and demands:
"WHAT are you waiting for?". In a hushed, musical little voice, the small boys answers:
"I don't know, something amazing, I guess".
Well...this is what I intend to do for my Lenten practice this year. Rather than bracing for more bad news or hiding in the darkness about the world's fights and deaths or worrying about my own precious family and their pain and sufferings, I want to spend the forty days and forty nights with my eyes open and my heart and mind ready and "waiting for something amazing".
I never did well at giving up something for Lent....so I always tried to do something extra like attend mass more often, work at the food pantry, help a friend in need, etc. We also always tried to go to the Stations of the Cross every Friday night in lent. A beautiful service where you walk with the Lord in his passion and death and resurrection. I tried to teach the children about lent and what it means and we used to draw names (just the four of us) and then pray every day just for that person and their happiness and we also had to try to do something nice or say something nice to that person every day without telling them we had drawn their names. It was fun and most always we could each guess who had the luck of the draw and got OUR names! So my lenten practice this year will be to look for surprises...make a gratitude list of all my blessings, open my soul to new life in the midst of the difficulty of my personal family, open my heart, let God work in my life, and WAIT FOR SOMETHING AMAZING.
Now....about IU !!! Well Ash Wednesday started with a trip to a doctor's appointment for Dave. Found out that his white and red counts are still dropping (as expected) and the creatinine level is holding in at 1.5. After the doctor's appointment we went to lunch and then came home for a little while...Dave went to tutor some students and I picked him up at 6:00 and we headed to Lafayette to watch the Purdue and IU basketball game. !! It was great! I was happy because IU won...Dave was sad because Purdue lost! Neither team is all that great this year and so we were just happy to be celebrating Dave's birthday a little early. (This was one of his birthday gifts!). We had never been to Mackey Arena .. and Dave had said he would like to do that sometime. This was the perfect SOMETIME! It was a lovely night. GO IU !! haha. I'll add this to my "gratitude list" for sure.
I noticed when I got ready for bed that just a tiny bit of the "smudge" was still visible on my forehead. What a day to be grateful for. When Easter comes this year, I will be more prepared. I want to turn my heart away from death and open it wide to the the good news and to something amazing that ended death for all of us on that special Easter day.
posted by Thoughts From Serenity at
7:52 AM
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