Daughters of St. Paul Strength for the Week Chocolate and Crucifixion

Strength for the Week

Chocolate and Crucifixion Hello, It seems it was just yesterday that the angels were calling to the shepherds: "Go to Bethlehem and see the Child born for you!"  Tomorrow we will begin a new journey. We will answer the call to go with Jesus "to Jerusalem." The fulfillment of the Christmas story lies in the Easter resurrection, for the birth we celebrated at Christmas is the birth of the Child who has come to rescue us.  "In Jerusalem" we will see the suffering Lord Jesus who works our salvation on the cross. On the third day the glory and beauty of the Risen One will shine also on a creation renewed...on men and women transformed in the glory of the resurrection, on us to whom the Father also says, "YOU are my beloved son!" So set out tomorrow with courage and faith! Join our #PutOthersFirst challenge explained below. And our Book Clubs will begin this week-end. We're looking forward to walking this Lent with you "to Jerusalem." Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP And so the Church year turns again to Lent. It’s a tricky season to navigate. As Catholics, we’re called to penance as we contemplate the journey of Our Lord through betrayal by his friends all the way to his torture and death. But let’s face it: 40 days is a long time to keep doing anything, especially something that you don’t like to do. Catholics traditionally “give up” something for Lent. We return to meatless Fridays. We deprive ourselves of something that we really like—chocolate, for example. And we feel the pinch of the loss and sometimes we even make it through to Holy Week without cheating. And somehow in all of that we lose the point of why we are doing it, because we’re so caught up in the how of doing it. God forgive us, we sometimes even feel sorry for ourselves for missing out on the glories of chocolate! So this year might be the perfect year to look at Lent a little differently. Maybe it’s time to disassociate it from chocolate or meat or any of the luxuries we give up and that we generally substitute for prayer and penance. Jesus made what we are supposed to do very clear. In the Gospels he set forth what would become the three “pillars” of the early Church, so called because they hold up the faithful, keep the people of God from falling into self-absorption and sin. Continue Reading > "Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life."  Pope Benedict XVI  Join us for a #PutOthersFirst Challenge! At Advent, our hashtag challenge was #PutJesusFirst. For Lent our hashtag challenge is #PutOthersFirst.  The traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving all lead us to just this, to put others before ourselves, seeing in the other Jesus Christ himself.  There are many ways to #PutOthersFirst. Throughout Lent we’ll be led by Scripture to come up with a variety of ways we can do this in our own families, where we work, with people we meet, those who need our help, even the people who share the road with us…. As mothers, teachers, police officers, nurses, fire fighters, fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, priests and religious.... While we give something to the “other” we put first, we will reap something very beautiful for ourselves and for the world: our hearts will deepen as we enter the experience of others,  our happiness will grow as we seek to unify, our credibility will increase as we seek to understand before seeking to be understood,  our anxiety will diminish as relationships blossom in unexpected places,  our lives will grow calm as we shield our hearts from the prevailing sarcasm, scorn, and insults that pervade our media and sometimes our personal conversations and allow a beautiful reservoir of respect, gentleness, maturity, and humility to well up within our hearts and flow through our lives. Together lets #PutOthersFirst this Lent! Everytime you #PutOthersFirst update your Facebook page or Twitter feed with a photo, comment or prayer. Together we can change the world. Theology of the Body: See What John Paul II Saw Theology of the Body (also called TOB) is a way of looking at our relationships with God and with each other. In TOB, Pope John Paul II established an adequate anthropology in which the human body reveals God, examining man and woman before the Fall, after it, and at the resurrection of the dead. Here's a look at one person's discovery of TOB: The story of how I discovered TOB is rather unique. A few years ago, God began showing me things about the Christian life that I couldn't remember being taught much about, and sometimes I wasn't sure the ideas were even Catholic. But the more I dug through Scripture and the Catechism and the saints, the more I found these ideas. Still, they didn't seem like things Catholics ever talked about. Then I went to the World Meeting of Families, where I heard Church leaders from all over the world speaking about these very ideas - what a surprise! I bought some books and soon discovered that these ideas had a name - Theology of the Body. Knowing TOB affects how I view God, the Mass, the Church, prayer, ethics, the saints, the Bible, modern issues, the sacraments, and my marriage. TOB helps me understand almost everything in a way that is beautiful and exciting. John Paul II can be difficult to understand, but his vision of the Catholic life is wonderful and I'm so glad Pauline Books and Media continues to provide ways for every Catholic to see what John Paul II saw. My favorite TOB concept is the "Spousal Analogy." It is a beautiful teaching that helps me see God's love for me in a whole new way. It is an important idea for reaching out to people who have no interest in religion and showing them the Christian faith in a way that is meaningful to them. TOB is very practical. It gets at all kinds of questions people are asking these days. I've used it to help kids in my youth group deal with things going on at their schools. I wish I had known it a decade ago when my friend had serious problems and the two pastors I went to for answers had none. People are hurting and they need our help. Learning TOB will enable you to be a better friend, coworker, parent, grandparent, and neighbor. Suzanne Macdonald Expert author Christopher West says that TOB's theme is that "the body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it." Discover Theology of the Body for YourselfGo at your own pace with this helpful and clear video series, a total of 12 hours of faith formation complete with a downloadable study guide. Introductory offer 40% off till March 8th. Imitation of Christ BACK IN PRINT! Lent starts this week. A reflection. We'd love for you to share this news!