#penance

hughjardon:

I am soon to have to wear a long grey wool cardigan like this but with buttons and a large ribbed collar all of the time as part of my future discipline for misbehaviour.  I hate wool cardigans so this will be a deserved and ever present reminder for me of the need to behave as well as making an example of me to other young women.

Those whom God pardons, must [nevertheless] be made to know what their sin deserved. [This will prevent us from taking lightly His mercy, by revealing the fatal nature of unpardoned sins, and the awful consequences of which we have been largely spared. A most terrible penance is that God will simply] let [us] go forward ‘as [we] are,’ [according to our own obstinate desires; despite the lack of active 'punishment’] this [leniency is] very expressive of God’s displeasure. Though He promises to make good His covenant with [us, despite our infidelity– God is still faithful–] yet [by the very nature of our willfully sinful state,] He denies [us] the tokens of His presence [we] had been blessed with [while in a state of grace. When we realize this distance, we shall mourn inconsolably] for [our] sin. Of all the bitter fruits and consequences of sin, true penitents most lament, and dread most, God’s departure from them. [Eden] itself would be no pleasant land without the Lord’s presence! Those [of us sinners] who [would readily] part with [our money, time, and comfort] to maintain [a habitual] sin, could do no less than lay aside [the same, giving money & time & effort towards the service of God as a] token of sorrow and shame for [the wasteful error of our sins. Indeed, what good are all the riches of the world, if we have not God? No amount of earthly pleasures can ever fill the emptiness we feel when we lose the grace of His Presence; that is something only a humbled, contrite heart can hope to be graced with once more.]

Matthew Henry; Commentary on Exodus 33:3

Took a break from Snikt family dress-up to draw she

HOMILY for Feast of St David

Phil 3:8-14; Ps 1; Matt 5:13-16

The final words of St David, patron saint of Wales whose feast we celebrate today, are as necessary as ever. He said: “Be joyful, keep the faith, do the little things you have seen me do”. I want to consider the Saint’s wise words in the context of this day, Shrove Tuesday which is the cusp of Lent, and also in the context of the ongoing sorrows and uncertainties that we face in our time because of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Firstly, in all circumstances we can be joyful if we remain rooted in Christ and keep our eyes on him just as an athlete stays focussed on the finishing line. Hence St Paul said: “I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.” But in every athletic contest, in every race, there is the need for training and discipline, there is suffering to be endured. The disciplines of Lent, therefore, fortify us and train us to endure those sufferings with good grace; our penances prepare us to unite any hardships we endure with the sufferings of Christ by accepting them for love of him, looking ahead to the victory of the resurrection that we are promised follow on from the sorrows of this life. Thus St Paul says: “All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead.”

Therefore St David says: “Keep the faith”. What this suggests is that for us Christians, we have been given grace to endure all things with Christ, for the love of him, so that we might willingly share in his sufferings. Our joy, therefore, is not about outward cheeriness and inviting pain and suffering, of course, but rather, it is the knowledge that our sorrows and our freely-chosen penances can unite us to Christ, to Our Lady, to the Saints such as St David who all suffered greatly for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of true charity, and for the salvation of souls. St David, for example, lived the austere life of a Celtic monk, abstaining from all wine and standing in cold lakes, in order to train himself for the even greater sacrifices needed for the life of a missionary preacher of the Gospel in 6th-century Wales. And I ask myself: what comforts can I forsake to train myself to be a better priest, a more loving Christian, a less self-centred human being?

For, as Jesus asks: “if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again?” What indeed? The suggestion is that nothing on earth, nothing natural can make salt salty again. Rather, only the grace of God can make a Christian salty, so to speak; can make him shine brightly as St David does. And so it is the work of God’s grace, it is the mark of a good Lent, if our penances should genuinely train us for charity and so prepare us for heaven. Likewise, in difficult times, God’s grace strengthens us to bear our daily crosses willingly, with joy and indeed, with faith and hope and love.

Thus St David says: “do the little things you have seen me do”. Often, the penances we have to endure are not sensational or even big things. Although St David walked to Jerusalem, the suggestion here is that we don’t have to do the same. Rather, we are sanctified by doing little things well. The “good works” that Jesus calls for in today’s Gospel are the ordinary little things we can do with great love, that will shine and make the world around us, our communities and homes, into better, more loving, more civilised places. Holding our tongues from gossip or sarcastic comments, perhaps; voluntarily emptying the dishwasher or tidying up the kitchen and bathroom; a smile or kind word to the stranger or to those who we take for granted at home; volunteering to help rather than to complain and act in an entitled manner – all these are just little things, but they contribute to making us salt and light in our world. These may seem petty in the grand scheme of things with war and pestilence looming over us, but I think that the diabolical deception is to keep us worried and overwhelmed by the big problems so that we feel helpless.

But each of us have the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, given to us. So none of us are in fact helpless. Rather, as St David says, with the power of God at work in us, we can each “be joyful, keep the faith, [and] do the little things” that make us better Christians. We thank God, therefore, that the holy season of Lent is soon upon us, so that we can be more focussed on “the perfection that comes through faith in Christ”, as St Paul says. To this end, may St David be with us and pray for us.

All of us are acquainted with suffering, be it a physical, mental, or emotional one. For those of us free from the trial of constant suffering, Lent presents us with an opportunity to embrace penances – we are invited to undertake little sufferings for our sanctification.

But what about those of us who are facing chronic suffering? For us, .

“It would be easy to become very bitter about having to suffer each day – but God is inviting me to something more. He is inviting me to embrace my cross, and to offer it always back to him – uniting it to his own suffering on the cross.”

– Michele Chronister, “When God Chooses Your Lent”

paying homage to gen x with the book’s signature headache inducing colors ✨✨✨