Lent began with an effort on Ash Wednesday to fast from any intake of food or liquid for 12 hours. It was easier said than done especially since the office environment is one where food is the favorite pastime of everyone. Come the 12th hour, I was already dizzy from the hunger but was able to draw strength from within to overcome it. The experience made me realize that strength of will is something that we can cultivate with conscious effort and with prayer.
The past few weeks I've felt my heart stirred many times and in many ways both during and outside of prayer. It's been such a graced season. "Dear Lord, how truly present you are!" I've found myself saying to Him. "How true it is that You love us first." I long to curl up like a little child and rest "in the palm of his Hand" like the prayer goes. And this while remembering His great sacrifice of love as concretized by His suffering and death on the cross.
My resolve to lay my whole being at His feet and offer the rest of my life for Him to use as He pleases is as strong as ever. And like the fasting experience, the strength to make good this offering will have to come from conscious effort, much prayer and a continued going back to the experience of being loved by Him first.
"Oh dearest, dearest Lord, make me worthy of your Love. Teach me to want only what You want, to live and work only in the way You want me to do so, to be open to everything from and for You..."
A "SAMPLE" way of living for Him, until it becomes clearer how else to love Him better:
S - implicity of lifestyle
A - cceptance of self and others
M -ission
P - resence
L - istening with love
E - mbracing His cross
The graces of Lent!
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