Day 49 – 2.5 hours               411 to go

Well, I royally messed up with the World Day of Prayer – it was yesterday & in my pee-brain, I thought it was today – OOPS; so later I will pray for our church to be one, as the Son is one with the Father.

My morning started with a reminder from St. Irenaeus in the OOR of the words of Moses: “He fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that you might understand that man will not live by bread alone but will live by every word of God coming from the mouth of God.”  I implore y’all to spend more time with the Word; dust off your Bibles and eat your fill!  Irenaeus went on to instruct us that “man did not possess the glory of God, nor could he attain it by any other means than through obedience to God”, then quoted Moses again – “Choose life, that you may live and your descendants too; love the Lord your God, hear His voice and hold fast to Him, for this is life for you and length of days.” – Quite profound, yet quite simple!!!  I would like length of days, so I choose life.

The day ended with great prayers of thanksgiving & praise – Psalm 116:1-9, Psalm 121, & Revelation 15:3-4.  Here’s your chance to crack open the Good book, God’s Love Letter. (thank you Lord for the gift of Father Ray Introvigne!!)

I went to Mass @ the Assisted Living facility I minister at and was blessed by the “packed house” for first Friday Mass.  Thanks to Father Brian for his devotion to saying Mass @ the various nursing and assisted living homes in the area.  I also was one of a team of nine Knights of Columbus who led the Stations of the Cross @ St. Mary’s in Groton.  If any of you who are reading this have not made Stations a part of your Friday’s in Lent, I pray that you do so.  They are a gift of true blessing to our church.

The DI chapter, Humiliations was as expected, another challenging step up in the call to holiness.  The first sentence said a mouthful – “Many souls would like to be humble, but few desire humiliation; many ask God to make them humble and fervently pray for this, but very few want to be humiliated.” – I was the biggest offender!  The chapter went with a reminder of the significance of all sin (& we are all sinners) and how it offends our Creator.  It went on to state that the saints were firmly convinced that they never found the humiliations which came to them too painful; they considered them, on the contrary, always less than they deserved.  Then a command from Sirach – “Bear your humiliations patiently, for man is tried in this crucible as gold in the fire.”  The chapter went on to instruct us, “It is not the humiliation itself which makes us humble, but the act of the will by which we accept it.” – GOOD STUFF!!!!

One final thing – confession!  I received the grace of the sacrament yesterday & implore all of you to take advantage of this gift.  On a daily basis, talk to God about your weakness and ask forgiveness and for grace to become stronger in your walk.  But at least monthly, go to your priests and follow our Lord’s command; for he gave our priests this power when he said to Peter, “whose sins you loose shall be forgiven and whose sins you bind, they shall be bound.” John 20:23

My chaplet was for the people of Haiti & Chile and my rosary was for the Knights of Columbus.

Peace