Day 38 – 2.5 hours, day 39 - 2 hours      436.5 to go

I read three chapters in Divine Intimacy yesterday – Pretty brave on my part!!! – the first was The Spirit of Mortification.  Thank the Lord that it was about a different aspect of mortification than physical – the chapter proved to be as big a challenge as pain since it dealt with renunciation of our egos, our wills (or getting our way all the time), and understanding.  It noted that love of self and complacency in our own excellence are issues that need mortifying in a big way; and that making “self” the center of the universe is not the will of God – PRIDE is a big issue for many of us and St. Teresa of Jesus states that even if we do embrace the physical pains that life deals us without mortifying our ego and “getting our own way”, “physical mortification remains at the halfway mark and never reaches it’s goal.”  The chapter went on to warn that we cannot avoid people we don’t like and as I noted in an earlier blog, that we should seek some form of humility on a regular basis to keep grounded and focused on the will of God.  Even if it causes much pain and heartache, we still must always do the right thing. – UGH!!!!!!!!!  I have been such a sinner! – the next chapter was The Great Combat which was about the challenge of resisting temptation (from the Gospel from Sunday (Jesus’ being tempted by Satan)) and that was followed by Conversion, which was about our need to become totally dedicated to becoming a saint – yes, it was about Mike Olock becoming a saint!!! – please don’t laugh too much, I really am trying real hard to avoid sin and have made some great strides in casting off some of my biggest sin issues – yes, if Mike can do it, maybe you can too!

Today’s chapter was Sin.  if these last three weren’t enough, this was about how serious every sin is!  Think about this!  One sin, just one sin instantly changed Lucifer from the angel of light to the angel of darkness.  One sin deprived Adam and Eve of the state of grace and friendship with God and caused the abyss between God and man, which caused the Son of God to become human and be put to death in a most vicious and heinous way. – Must I go on!!!   The good news is that we have some serious weapons; prayer, penance, and “most of all, love”.  Thank God for the season of Lent and all the opportunities we have to fight the battle – see y’all @ stations on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One last thing for today for any of you who still think that there is not enough time in your day to spend an hour or so in prayer – what about your time in the car commuting to work – a rosary would be much more pleasing to God than listening to Imus in the Morning – I’ll bet that giving up watching the Olympics to attend your parish mission would be pleasing to God - & getting up a little earlier and going to bed a little later would probably not cause irreparable harm – actually a little fatigue would count as mortification!!!!!!!!!!!

 My chaplets were for the people of Haiti and my rosary on Monday was for vocations & today was for the all the wonderful religious of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Peace