Do you practice the virtue of hope? Pope Francis calls hope the virtue that is hidden and humble. Hidden because so often we don’t see reasons for our hope in the world. Humble – because our hope is made real in the humility of Jesus who comes to walk with us, to share our life, our joys, and our struggles. As I practice the virtue of hope, I see that the face of Jesus is the only hope and stability I have in this fallen world. We are all called to hope.
Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022, is just two weeks away. Have you started contemplating how you will enter this penitential season and spend 40 days uniting your heart with Jesus’? 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 the counter cultural path of love. If we open our heart and hear God’s 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.
There are many great resources out there to help guide your Lenten journey. Here are a few to explore to begin preparing your heart to determine what is best for you in journey through Lent:
Blessed is She invites us to travel along the road of our interior poverty this Lent and to embrace our utter dependence on God with All She Had Lent 2022 Devotional. In this fresh devotional, we will find ourselves gently guided through six poverties: of promise, of desire, of security, poverty of hope, poverty of control, poverty of intimacy and poverty of everything.
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, for the first time ever, Dynamic Catholic is offering two options for Best Lent Ever. Every day, you will receive two short, practical, and inspiring videos in your inbox, each representing a pathway leading toward a better version of you and a closer relationship with God. Why did they double up? Well, the world has changed. We have changed. And to offer a truly transformative experience, they developed two pathways designed specifically to meet us where we are, no matter where we are in your spiritual journey.
Good Catholic invites us to deepen our relationship with Christ this lent. Being a Christian means imitating Christ. But how can we imitate Him if we don’t personally know Him? Discover Jesus’ works, loves, joys, and sorrows in The Life of Christ so that you can follow Him more closely. Change Your Life By Studying His. You can learn more here.
We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.
Hebrews 10:23-24
Pope Francis says, the word of God consoles and encourages us. At the same time, it summons us to conversion, challenges us, 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 further into the light finding God’s goodness!
Many people feel that they cannot go on and pray “Lord give me the strength to continue.” Prayer opens the heaven: it gives life oxygen; it gives a breath of fresh air even in the midst of breathlessness and lets us see things from a broader perspective… Do I cultivate intimacy with God, dialogue with him, listen to his word? Among the many things we do each day, let us not neglect prayer; let us dedicate time to it, let us use short invitations to be repeated often, let us read the gospel every day. The prayer that opens the heaven.
How do I live with hope when the world seems so lost? Our lives seem so painful and senseless at times, and it all seems so pointless. When I ask this question, I’m taking action as I’m seeking and looking for an answer. Hope is almost always connected to action.
We live in a culture that produces hopelessness. We can see the evidence of this in the anxiety and depression rates we have in the US. Faced with chaotic realities, where the loudest voice defines truth, where the expectation is that we can do it all and have it all, we are rarely satisfied. Seldom do we allow ourselves to rest in the presence of God.
As spiritual beings, we are all given the spiritual gift of hope but does hope live in your heart? As I eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed, I know I have all the spiritual gifts I need. But am I open to them or better yet am I open to Him?
Savor is to taste and enjoy something completely. God gifted me with the word “savor” this year, inviting me to become immersed and devoted to the fullness of being and calling me to walk the path of meaning. My life, when lived from the heart, is a life of fullness, taking me to places of love, meaning, truth, and kindness. I live in the image of Christ here on this earth to serve and to love. I become true to myself, holding nothing back.
Life doesn’t add up but opens. How can it be that I’ve lived in this world for more than fifty eight years and I’m just learning what it means to be open to life. Living a life of openness and being rather than one limited by doing. Living a life always searching and acquiring rather than in the simplicity of enough.
Smitten With Goodness 