Hang New Curtains this Lent!

Did you ever notice that the Lenten season seems to come and go in the blink of an eye? All of a sudden you find yourself at Easter Mass wondering how time so easily slipped through your fingers. Darn! You had promised yourself that this Lent would be different. You wouldn’t be caught by surprise, yet again!

But already you can feel it happening again; you are not experiencing Lent the way you wanted.

However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can make the conscious choice—right here, right now—to stop in your busy tracks and embrace the Lenten season.  

Lent is a season of preparing for the resurrection of Christ—to be ready to live in that resurrection  

Prepare room so that he may dwell in your heart: Your heart is where Christ wishes to dwell and where his resurrection can be most noticeably felt. Lent is the perfect time to make room in it for His presence. If your heart is filled with unforgiveness, it has no room for Christ. This Lent do an honest, even painful Examination of Conscience wherein you ask your Heavenly Father to reveal to you any unforgiveness that exists in your heart. Remember that as God has forgiven you, you are also asked to forgive others.

Clean out the cobwebs: After an Examination of Conscience where you ask God to reveal any unforgiveness that you are holding, it is important to clean out the vestiges of cobwebs that may still be lurking in the dark corners of your heart. A beautiful time to do this is during a Stations of the Cross service. As you move through the Stations of the Cross and participate in the responses, you will find the cobwebs being dusted away and preparing you for the resurrection.

Hang new curtains: The room of your heart is now ready: unforgiveness and cobwebs have been cleared out. Now it is time to hang new curtains! Many of us fall into a rut in our daily lives and forget how to live in joy. You are preparing for Christ’s resurrection and that ought to bring great happiness! So throw out the old curtains of fear and despair and exhaustion and hang new curtains of joy and praise for the resurrection.

Get out the fine china and set the table: Company is here! We aren’t doubtfully thinking that maybe He’s been resurrected. We are certain in our belief of His resurrection and every cell in our body joyfully shouts, “He lives!” This is the time we get the fine china out of the cupboard to celebrate the resurrection. Our fine china goes so well with our new curtains!

Open the front door: Whenever we have company in our home, after all the preparation is complete, we open our front door and wait expectantly, excitedly on our couch. We can’t wait to visit with our company. The same is applicable now: let’s rejoice in the resurrected Lord and celebrate by the way we live and love.

 

A Daily Examination of Conscience: What Is It Exactly?

A simple examination of conscience helps build the moral life of a Catholic. It guides a Catholic towards holiness and sainthood. Like taking vitamins or brushing your teeth, it should be done daily!

Find a set time where you will have anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes of quiet and solitude. If possible, also find a specific location. This may be 10 minutes of quiet on your couch or it might be 20 minutes in a prayer corner on a prie dieu. No matter what, when you see this as a sacred responsibility, finding those few minutes each day will be easy.
 

An Examination of Conscience is about reviewing your day and seeing it through the eyes of Christ. It is about offering it up for objective examination where the fruit will be your spiritual growth and maturity.

 

 

Have a number of questions to get yourself started but be willing to allow the Lord to speak to you and guide where the time goes. To create a list of questions, consider your daily life in a general sense and your vocation. For instance, a full-time mother may have a different set of questions than a woman who has no children. Ultimately your questions are about how you reacted in different circumstances. These aren’t meant to beat yourself up about, they are meant to help you grow as a disciple of Christ.
 

Begin with a short prayer. Try something like this:

"Father, I would like to spend a few minutes with you looking at my day. I want to live more fully in your light and love and ask that you help me do this so that my life is pleasing to you and serves you. I am grateful for the forgiveness you have given me in your son and desire to grow in holiness."

Here are some sample Examination of Conscience questions for a wife and mother of teenagers who works part-time outside of the home:

• How did I see God today in my co-workers?
• Did I respond to them as I should have?
• If I didn’t, why not? (you can ask God to help you with this if it is something you find yourself doing a lot)
• In what ways did I reflect that I am a beloved daughter of Christ today?
• If I didn’t, why didn’t I? (does God need to help me accept his love and forgiveness?)
• If I did, how did that deepen my own relationship with Christ?
• Did I find time to pray today?
• If not, what stopped me? Was my time well spent today?
• If I did, how did I grow with God as a result of that prayer time?
• Did I find time to read today’s Gospel?
• If not, what stopped me? Was my time well spent today?
• If I did, how did I grow with God as a result of that time in the Word?
• Did I lovingly attend to the duties of my vocation?
• If not…
• If so…
• How will I invite God into my day tomorrow?

A true Examination of Conscience is always objective. It doesn’t encourage you to determine truths based upon your own feelings, rather it asks you to see your day through the life and teachings of Christ so that you can grown into the sainthood to which we are all invited.

Cheryl Dickow

www.BezalelBooks.com