Fourth Sunday of Lent

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

Laetare Sunday

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 32 The Tools and Goods of the Monastery - Ch 37 The Elderly and Children

We hung up our harps.

SAINT JOSEPH, LOVER OF POVERTY,

MARY, MOTHER OF HOPE,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

By grace you have been saved ... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works so that you may boast. For we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

(Ephesians 2:5, 8-10)

How about Saint Paul's words to the Ephesians above? Awesome. More on this after a few ☺introductory musings.  

Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday: Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at the consoling breast (see Isaiah 66:10-11). We pray especially for all those preparing to enter the Church this Easter who will receive the Second Scrutiny today. We join them in prayer so as to be free from the deceptions of the world and heed the words of Saint Benedict: "Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else" (Rule of Saint Benedict, 4:20-21).

Still in the month of March dedicated to Saint Joseph, how is it going as we work on four weeks into the holy season of Lent? Be alert, faithful readers, as we recall some words from C.S. Lewis: "The tempter always works on some real weakness in our own system of values: offers food to some need we have starved" ("Equality", The Spectator, August 27, 1943). Saint Joseph, faithful guide and source of inspiration, pray for us.

On the subject of the gift of grace, I pass along something from Father Michael Casey, in Grace: On the Journey to God (Paraclete, 2018), pp. 31-32: "We need to appreciate how the transcendent reality of divine grace interacts with the workaday reality of the human condition since, as the Scholastic theologians used to say, 'Whatever is received is received in the measure of the receiver.' Grace itself is limitless; any restrictions come from the side of the receiver, that is, us. Grace as it is received is often less complete than grace as it is given." I pass this along because yesterday, while standing near the altar at Mass, I prayed, "Jesus and Mary, please do something." At the moment, I don't think I could have stood more unprotected before the Lord. I needed help. And you know what? Jesus and Mary did something. For this gift, I give God the praise. If you going to petition Jesus and Mary, then believe and be open, for as Saint Paul writes, "by grace you have been saved through faith." And if you are going to boast, boast in the Lord. It's all gift; don't put limits on the gifts of God. I believe, help my unbelief. 

On to our voices for the week ...

It is always tempting to take credit for the gifts of grace and to lay the blame elsewhere for our faults. If we do not claim responsibility for the choices that are truly ours, neither can we ask for or accept forgiveness. Too heavy for us, our offenses-too heavy not to allow the Lord to wipe them away.

(Magnificat, Introduction to Psalm 65, Saturday, March 9, 2024, p. 129)

What then is man, if you do not visit him? Remember, Lord, that you have made me as one who is weak, that you formed me from dust. How can I stand, if you do not constantly look upon me, to strengthen this clay, so that my strength may proceed from your face? When you hide your face, all grows weak (Ps 104:29) ... [But] God does not reject those He sees, because He purifies those upon whom He gazes. Before Him burns a fire capable of consuming our guilt. 

(Saint Ambrose of Milan, 339-397, De Interpellatione David The Plea of David, IV, 6, 22)

In this Holy Lent, let us lift up our hearts and always go forward for the triumph of the reign of Christ in Society.

(Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, 1901-1925)

In the case of those who are making progress from good to better the good angel touches the soul gently ... while the evil spirit touches the soul sharply, with noise and disturbance.

(Saint Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)

Become what you were meant to be and you will set fire to the whole earth.

(Saint Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380)

There is a dignity and poignancy in the bare fact that a thing exists.

(C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, They Asked for a Paper)

And lastly, united in faith and prayer, we set about the week, and no matter what, we keep going inspired by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), from a letter he wrote to Pope Innocent II in 1134:

If sadness were our continual state, who could bear it? If, on the other hand, things always went well, then who could not think little of them? Wisdom, the careful controller of all things, alternates the temporal life of his chosen ones with necessary changing between good things and bad. By such a regimen, they will neither be crushed by adversity nor lose discipline through too much joy. Also, it is by this means that joys are appreciated and difficulties more readily endured. Blessed be God forever!

THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE,

SAINT JOHN OGILVIE,

SAINT AENGUS,

SAINT CONSTANTINE,

SAINT THEOPHANES THE CHRONICLER,

SAINT SERAPHINA,

SAINT RODERICK,

SAINT MATILDA OF RINGELHEIM,

SAINT LOUISE DE MARILLAC,

BLESSED JOHN ANNE,

SAINT CLEMENT M. HOFBAUER,

POPE SAINT ZACHARY,

SAINTS HILARIUS AND TATIANUS OF AQUILEIA,

SAINT JULIAN OF ANTIOCH,

VENERABLE JAN TYRANOWSKI,

VENERABLE MARY ALPHONSA HAWTHORN,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Not rose colored on this Laetare Sunday, it will do just fine. Our despoilers urged us to be joyous. 

© Gertrude Feick 2024