Lenten Penances

The girls and I discussed our Lenten sacrifices before beginning a Rosary Novena for a friend's marriage. I will continue to attend daily Mass, we will say the novena every night, and we are giving up all sweets. The girls told me they will be considering their own private sacrifices. Of course, I had some handy suggestions.

This meditation, however, should be a somber reminder that Our Lord, who wants us to love with His perfect love, generously sends us penances. But will we accept them with the same sprirt of love?

St. Augustine



"There is no better test to distinguish the chaff from the grain, in the Church of God , than the manner in which sufferings, contradiction, and contempt are borne. Whoever remains unmoved under these, is grain. Whoever rises against them is chaff; and the lighter and more worthless he is, the higher he rises-that is, the more he is agitated, and the more proudly he replies."
A Year with the Saints, (Tan Books:1988), 111.
 
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Here are a few words from St. Paul of the Cross:
"Therefore, be constant in practicing every virtue, and especially in imitating the patience of our dear Jesus, for this is the summit of pure love.

Live in such a way that all may know that you bear outwardly as well as inwardly the image of Christ crucified, the model of all gentleness and mercy. For if a man is united inwardly with the Son of the living God, he also bears his likeness outwardly by his continual practice of heroic goodness, and especially through a patience reinforced by courage, which does not complain either secretly or in public. Conceal yourselves in Jesus crucified, and hope for nothing except that all men be thoroughly converted to his will."

HT Mary Vitamin