Growing In Good Works

I hope this post finds you settling into your word of the year as well as having a plan mapped out to get to know your Saint buddy. My prayer time this week included a plea for guidance on how to best get to know mine, St. Joseph. The next day, I was listening to the Godsplaining podcast and low and behold, they were discussing the Year of St. Joseph. This conversation gave me a good starting point for my plan. I love how God works! Do you have a plan to nourish your mind this year? Another practice I wanted to share that supports my growth is identifying twelve books that will challenge my thinking. Getting through this stack feels good when I complete in December.

Have you started thinking about Lent? 

Lent is early this year beginning on Ash Wednesday February 17, 2021. Just as Jesus suffered and was tempted by Satan, during Lent we are also called to enter the desert of our own lives. Through the good works of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, God prunes our hearts as we are united to Christ and his suffering. These practices give us the strength to resist sin and follow His counter cultural path of love. If we open our heart and hear His word, we learn how Jesus, exposed in his humanity, rejects sin when confronted with temptations and seeks solace in God the Father. This serves as an example for us in our own personal deserts. We will take the opportunity to unpack each topic of prayer, service and almsgiving over the next few weeks. The 40 days of Lent is a good time to solidify and root these practices in our life.

We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works. 

Focus on His truth, Hebrews 10:24

There are many great resources out there to help guide your Lenten journey. Here are a few to explore to begin preparing your heart in what is best for you:

Blessed is She has a new Lent devotional Set a Fire which I will be using in addition to my Magnificat Lenten Journey and Word on Fire reflections.

Walking with Purpose helps to prepare your heart for the triumph of resurrection through several short, powerful bible studies:

Looking to feel revived and refreshed as you grow in the knowledge that you are loved? Choose Living In The Father’s Love.

Need to be awakened to the reality of who you are in Christ? Choose Fearless and Free.   

Desire to learn how all Scripture points to Jesus, and recognize and appreciate God’s plan for your own life? Choose Beholding His Glory.   

Want to counter feeling weighed down by a culture that all too often leaves us feeling empty and dissatisfied? Choose Beholding Your King.   

Dynamic Catholic continues their Best Lent Ever series and you can sign up for free. This year the topic is feeding your soul with prayer. Nothing will transform your life so completely, absolutely, and forever like really learning how to pray. It is not what you give up for lent, it is who you become.

To be Christian is to imitate Christ. Good Catholic and Fr. Ken Geraci are taking a journey through The Life of Christ that promises Christ will become more real to you, in His humanity and His divinity. You can learn more here.

Pope Francis says, the word of God consoles and encourages us. At the same time, it summons us to conversion, challenges us, and frees us from the bondage of our selfishness. For His word has the power to change our lives and to lead us out of darkness into the light.

Let’s use this Lent to walk through the darkness and further into the light being Smitten with His Goodness!

Cynthia