Top Secret ! Lent Should Make You Smile ! ! !

"When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray 
 in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
Mark 6; 16-18

Welcome to Ash Wednesday!  For those of you who are confused and thought it was St. Valentines Day, well, it is, but Ash Wednesday takes precedence over the memorial for Valentine.   It is a day of fasting and abstinence.  So, no eating meat today and no eating between meals and your main meal should be less than the two smaller meals you are allowed to maintain your strength.  Now, if you are a senior citizen, that is 59 1/2 or older, the Church says that you can skip the fasting, but keep the bratwurst in the freezer and break out the fish sticks or tuna because the meat thing applies to us oldsters too! 

In the time of Jesus, fasting was a way of prayer that was used by a lot of people. The issue that Jesus had with it was that the Pharisees would wear sad expressions and rumple their clothing and look like death warmed over so that everyone would know how wretchedly holy they were because they were fasting. The great majority of people would look at these people with awe because they appeared to be so very, very, very holy.  Jesus says the admiration of the people was their reward and that the Pharisees should expect no other reward for their trouble. 

It was the same when some of the Pharisee's went to the temple to pray.  They stood and looked up to the sky, moved their lips silently, and appeared to get lost in ecstasy as they seemingly hob-knobbed on a private channel with God Himself. Again the average man standing in the back of the temple would be awe-struck and wonder how he too could get that close to the almighty.  Then he would look at himself, dressed in dirty peasant gear, looked at the dirt ground in to the callouses on his hands and then he would look at the majestic robes of the scribes, and the scrubbed faces and immaculate manicures of the Pharisees and realize there was no way he, a simple man of the earth,  could ever be like the holy Pharisees. He would leave, his prayers unsaid in his shame.  Again, Jesus says this earthly admiration is about all that these holier than thou Pharisees could expect. 

Jesus gives us the secret to how to get the most out of our Lenten sacrifices and prayers.  That is to do them in secret, fast, by all means, it is good for the soul, but don't make a point of telling anyone you are fasting.  Offer the fasting to God, He will see it.  In the meantime pretend that you ate your fill and be of good cheer.  (This is hard for me, very hard. )   


Also, don't make a big deal about your prayer time.  When the time comes, with a smile, excuse yourself and go to a place where you won't be seen and pray your heart out!  God will listen and respond and no one needs to be the wiser. Let everyone think you just had something that you just had to do.

These next forty days will be a journey with Jesus to Jerusalem or perhaps forty days in the desert with Him or a personal forty-day retreat where we get closer to Jesus than we ever have been before.  Arm yourself for the journey, make sure you get to Mass, every Sunday and maybe one more time during the week?  Have a prayer time and put it on your calendar and honor it as you would any other appointment.  


Be especially kind and thoughtful to the people in your household and on the job and even to strangers.  Forgive and take less offense, be happy to help without being asked and without being thanked.  Think what it means to you to be a Christian and do those things that make Christianity come alive for you.  Do small things with great love. That is what these next forty days are all about.  




During this penitential season, take time to remember the poor souls in Purgatory. Give to them some of the prayer time each day.  Can you spare a Rosary once in a while?  Can you offer up your Mass and Communion for their benefit?   Not everyone goes directly to heaven and not everyone has someone to pray for them.  Volunteer and help the Poor Souls.  They suffer greatly and gladly for they know the day is nigh when they will rise from the ashes and enter Heaven and they will remember those that shortened their suffering by offering their prayers and sacrifices.  

Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude the Great

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”