A Septuagesima Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
It's time to prepare for Lent!
Today is Septuagesima Sunday in the traditional Church calendar. The priest wears purple as he will throughout Lent. It reminds us to prepare ourselves for Lent. The next two Sunday - Sexagesima and Quinquigesima - will do the same.
The new calendar simply continues it's merry way with "Ordinary" Sundays.
Rather than debate which approach is "better," I'll simply say this: I could use preparation time. What about you?
In case you're not sure what to prepare, The Inner Life of the Soul - which we've been following during this year's Sundays - puts it to us directly: "...we are asking ourselves, with more or less courage, what penance we will do in Lent." To help us make our choices - with more or less courage - we're given St. Paul as a guide. Frankly, given a choice, my own inclination would be the "less" courage. But St. Paul's words have me reconsidering now:
"Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection."
With the bar set high, will we accept the challenge and responsibility to make a meaningful commitment to our Lenten discipline?
"Who of us in our weakness prays God to give him the great grace to be able to fast? Who spends these days till Ash Wednesday (praying) for that intention? Do you or I?"
If you're in, recognize right away what you're getting yourself into. The reason we want to prepare now is so that our commitment will be serious and will stick. We won't give up the first time we have to give up some legitimate pleasure. It helps if we focus our material sacrifices, including our chastisement of the body, on the end game: the building up of our spiritual life. And to do that, we must begin with the virtue of humility.
"We do not like to take the trouble to conquer ourselves. Yet to lead a spiritual life is to be spiritual; and the spirit is not the body, but the master of the body. Nay, our very spirit itself, even more than our body, has got to be tamed down and humiliated and subdued by a force superior to its own; for the soul is the seat of our worst enemy - pride - and if a man is to be truly spiritual, before all things he must be humble."
There's no one penance or mortification that fits all. So, how about some simple ways any of us can mortify ourselves:
"...rise each morning punctually and promptly...make our loquacious tongues fast from idle words...our wandering eyes from useless sights. God Himself will teach us, if only we will it."
Again, we can keep St. Paul's heroic exhortation front and center in our minds:
"I so run not as an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection."
And when we slip and fall, or hit a roadblock due to our inherent softness, or laziness, or self-indulgence, turn your attention to the example provided by Our Lord and Savior, who, to save us from sin and possible damnation, gave Himself up to provide an example that should motivate even the most reprobate and hard-hearted among us.
"...if still the way seem hard to us, we must do one thing more..."
Here's where and how we turn our attention: Center our minds and hearts on the Passion and Death that awaited Him on Good Friday:
"He is insulted and spit upon; He is scourged till His body is one great wound, and then He is lifted on high to the scorn of His enemies, and is nailed naked to a cross."
And, for whatever your reason, if the singular imagining of Jesus suffering and death remains a step beyond your capability, then try this saint's exhortation to compare your own situation to His.
"It is told of St. Peter Favre that he was once asked by a certain nobleman to give him one short method or rule for his spiritual life; and although St. Peter Favre seems to have had an extraordinary flow of thought and language, his attempt was made in these few words; none others were needed.
'I would suggest to you nothing more than this,' he said, 'to repeat frequently in your heart:
Christ poor, and I rich;
Christ fasting, and I full;
Christ naked, and I clad;
Christ suffering, and I living in enjoyment.'
Having said this, he was silent."
Today is Septuagesima Sunday in the traditional Church calendar. The priest wears purple as he will throughout Lent. It reminds us to prepare ourselves for Lent. The next two Sunday - Sexagesima and Quinquigesima - will do the same.
The new calendar simply continues it's merry way with "Ordinary" Sundays.
Rather than debate which approach is "better," I'll simply say this: I could use preparation time. What about you?
In case you're not sure what to prepare, The Inner Life of the Soul - which we've been following during this year's Sundays - puts it to us directly: "...we are asking ourselves, with more or less courage, what penance we will do in Lent." To help us make our choices - with more or less courage - we're given St. Paul as a guide. Frankly, given a choice, my own inclination would be the "less" courage. But St. Paul's words have me reconsidering now:
"Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection."
With the bar set high, will we accept the challenge and responsibility to make a meaningful commitment to our Lenten discipline?
"Who of us in our weakness prays God to give him the great grace to be able to fast? Who spends these days till Ash Wednesday (praying) for that intention? Do you or I?"
If you're in, recognize right away what you're getting yourself into. The reason we want to prepare now is so that our commitment will be serious and will stick. We won't give up the first time we have to give up some legitimate pleasure. It helps if we focus our material sacrifices, including our chastisement of the body, on the end game: the building up of our spiritual life. And to do that, we must begin with the virtue of humility.
"We do not like to take the trouble to conquer ourselves. Yet to lead a spiritual life is to be spiritual; and the spirit is not the body, but the master of the body. Nay, our very spirit itself, even more than our body, has got to be tamed down and humiliated and subdued by a force superior to its own; for the soul is the seat of our worst enemy - pride - and if a man is to be truly spiritual, before all things he must be humble."
There's no one penance or mortification that fits all. So, how about some simple ways any of us can mortify ourselves:
"...rise each morning punctually and promptly...make our loquacious tongues fast from idle words...our wandering eyes from useless sights. God Himself will teach us, if only we will it."
Again, we can keep St. Paul's heroic exhortation front and center in our minds:
"I so run not as an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection."
And when we slip and fall, or hit a roadblock due to our inherent softness, or laziness, or self-indulgence, turn your attention to the example provided by Our Lord and Savior, who, to save us from sin and possible damnation, gave Himself up to provide an example that should motivate even the most reprobate and hard-hearted among us.
"...if still the way seem hard to us, we must do one thing more..."
Here's where and how we turn our attention: Center our minds and hearts on the Passion and Death that awaited Him on Good Friday:
"He is insulted and spit upon; He is scourged till His body is one great wound, and then He is lifted on high to the scorn of His enemies, and is nailed naked to a cross."
And, for whatever your reason, if the singular imagining of Jesus suffering and death remains a step beyond your capability, then try this saint's exhortation to compare your own situation to His.
"It is told of St. Peter Favre that he was once asked by a certain nobleman to give him one short method or rule for his spiritual life; and although St. Peter Favre seems to have had an extraordinary flow of thought and language, his attempt was made in these few words; none others were needed.
'I would suggest to you nothing more than this,' he said, 'to repeat frequently in your heart:
Christ poor, and I rich;
Christ fasting, and I full;
Christ naked, and I clad;
Christ suffering, and I living in enjoyment.'
Having said this, he was silent."
Happy Septuagesima Sunday!
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