For Lent this year I am doing Pray40, which is on the Hallow app. On Sundays, Father Mike Schmitz gives a Bible reading and homily. Yesterday, the theme was “Looking for Joy.” Father Mike mentioned the following quote:
“Suspicion often creates what it suspects.” C.S. Lewis from the “Screwtape Letters.”
My major takeaway was that if we often find what we’re looking for. If we’re looking to be disappointed, most likely we will be. Distrust can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I realized that life truly is what we make of it. It’s was a reminder that our attitudes can be our destiny. If we look for joy, we can find it.
I’m sharing some bits of joy I had this week, birdwatching at home:
The joyful couple together at the Bird Buddy AI feeder.
I watched as Red fed Mrs. and then gave her a turn at the feeder, but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera to capture it. It was heartwarming though!
Quail Egg Update:
I’ve only peeked a couple times on our quail nest. Last week I said we had four eggs. We’re now up to a dozen! I wrote about our quail nest HERE.
My kids at a piano recital. I’m posting this photo from years ago because my daughter would say she was giving up piano lessons for Lent.
I’m going to try and go to Ash Wednesday services today. I say “try” because the church by our house is so busy! On special days, I can’t make a right hand turn to go 1/2 mile to get to the parish because the cars are lined up at least a mile down the street. I sit at the stop sign, hoping for someone to let me in. I’ve had to turn around and go home because nobody let me in. How Christian of them!
I do believe that Lent is a good time to reflect on our lives. One Ash Wednesday service in past years stands out to me. Rather than giving something up — like chocolate or alcohol — the priest suggested doing something. He talked about investing more time in prayer or volunteering to help someone else. He felt it should be a time of giving of ourselves. He suggested reading the book of Mark from the Bible during the 40 days of Lent.
I’m a convert to Catholicism so I had to learn about Lent. I didn’t grow up with it. My kids did and my daughter always said she was giving up piano lessons for Lent. Yes, she hated piano. I thought piano had so many benefits and forced her to take lessons, years beyond what I should have done, she often reminds me.
If you don’t observe Lent and wonder what it’s all about, here’s a definition from Britannica:
Lent, in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. In Eastern churches Lent begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday that is nine days before Easter. This 40-day “Great Lent” includes Saturdays and Sundays as relaxed fast days.
Here’s a link to Good Housekeeping’s article called 25 Creative Things to Give Up for Lent in 2021: From gossip and complaining to junk food and coffee, ditching these habits could change your life by Juliana Labianca. There are a lot of good ideas to do in that article that could improve your life — whether or not you observe Lent.
Another thing I’m doing is taking a 40-day Lenten Challenge on the Hallow App. It’s with Mark Wahlberg, Chris Pratt, Jonathan Roumie and Fr. Mike Schmitz. If you haven’t tried Hallow, I really enjoy it and recommend it to add to your prayer life.
Do you have plans for Lent? If so, what are they?
What are your thoughts about doing something as opposed to giving up something?
March 5 is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of 40 days and 40 nights of Lent for many Christians. What are you giving up? Or more importantly, what are you going to do?
Three things I learned about Lenten season 10 years ago by Father Lincoln at Sacred Heart Church in Palm Desert stayed with me. He said to fast on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, carve out more time for daily prayer, and do good works. He never mentioned giving anything up.
Yes, I’ll be hungry Wednesday and probably every Friday, craving a fat juicy steak that I’d normally not care about. It’s a funny thing when you can’t have something, you fixate on it.
Second, I will find time to pray more. I believe that prayers make a difference in this world. A few months ago, I downloaded an app on my phone you may have heard about called Hallow. I signed up for their Lenten prayers, which I will listen to and pray with every day throughout Lent. They will have prayers every day given by everyone from a priest, to a former minister to Gwen Stefani and Marky Mark. Currently, I’m listening to their Bible in a Year podcast and I’m on day 109. I find it so helpful for my daily life.
Third, there is the part about doing good works. I think that is most difficult of all. Off the top of my head I don’t know what “good works” I can do. However, I am confident that if I keep my eyes open and look around me, I’ll see small ways where I can make a difference.
I remember when my daughter was in kindergarten at her Catholic school. The kids had to tell the class what they were giving up for Lent. She said piano lessons! She hated piano.
I’d like to know what you are doing for Lent. If you think about doing good works, what would they be?
To get into the Christmas spirit this year, I downloaded a religious app on my phone. On my walks I listen to a Bible in a Year podcast and an Advent Challenge.
In the Advent Challenge, some of the days end with a prayer which is more like a meditation. It’s called the Litany of Let Love.
Have a wonderful holiday this week and enjoy the Litany of Let Love:
