Under Construction

Some of my regular readers have emailed wondering if I was ok since I have been absent for nearly a week. I thank you for your concern and want to reassure you that things at chez Adrienne are just fine.

About a month before Christmas, we started to redecorate our bedroom. This was not a simple project, as it required taking down old wallpaper and replacing it with textured wallpaper to hide the drastically imperfect walls. Next would come the painting and rearrangement of furnishings and decorative accents.

My friend's illness prevented this project from going forward, leaving the bedroom in a state of true ugliness. Over the past week, we have managed to play catch up, and it will be done by Easter. Yesterday, we completed the wallpapering and have started to paint.

I believe in what Scripture teaches us through the Holy Catholic Church, so I have managed to not go completely crazy over the state of the bedroom. If we are to believe “all things work for good”, then somewhere in this mess there may be a message.

It occurred to me this morning that during Lent, we are trying to shed ourselves of some of the ugliness in our lives. By the end of Lent, we should have accomplished some “wallpapering and painting” of our souls. First though, we had to peel back and discard some of the old ugly stuff.

Maybe some of our “ugliness” is anger, impatience, or worry. We are angry when things don’t go the way we want them to go. We show impatience with the people in our lives we perceive as standing in our way. We worry needlessly about things we cannot change instead of changing the things we can. It reminds me of the commercial on TV where the voices proclaim, “I want it all, and I want it now!” This could well be the anthem for our time.

If you want to be open to the workings of the Holy Spirit in your life, you must rip anger and worry out of your life, just as we did with the old wallpaper. Left behind will be a wounded and scarred wall, but the Holy Spirit is waiting with a bucket of beautiful new paint. I bet He will even let you choose the color.

Transformation

Today’s reading in Deuteronomy is a powerful reminder of our Lenten journey. We begin Lent with a good idea of what we want to accomplish. We have list upon list of all the things we are going to do to help us grow in holiness. Usually about this time, we come to the realization that we may have chosen to do more than we can handle.

Yet in today’s reading, we see what God has promised us. He is making an agreement with us and telling us we are to be a people peculiarly His own. He tells us to keep His commandments so He may raise us high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations. We are to be people sacred to the Lord.

God doesn’t tell us to read a certain amount of scripture each day or abstain from eating chocolate. He simply tells us to keep His commandments. The two great commandments are; love God and love our neighbor.

Reading scripture and giving up chocolate and all the other pious practices are good things to do. Far too often, however, the fundamentals of our Christian faith are ignored while we fret about what we didn’t manage to do in any given day. We become frustrated and sometimes even angry, not only with ourselves, but with others.

Past a certain point, there is nothing we can do to affect change in our lives. Inner transformation is a gift from God, originating from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Frustration, anger, and sadness block the goodness and grace of God.

As an alcoholic, I was taught how dangerous and destructive anger and resentment can be. Although others may entertain such emotions, they are deadly for an alcoholic. I believe they are deadly for everyone.

Psalm 119 – Happy are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.

Lenten Journey

Of all the liturgical seasons of the Catholic Church, Lent is my favorite. It is the time when Holy Mother Church tells us to slow down. We are to remember that the joy we celebrated at the birth of Our Lord is going to end in His death and resurrection. I’m convinced that if I have a lousy Lent, the whole rest of the year will not unfold as it should.

The Church has these liturgical seasons for a reason. If left to our own devices, we would wander about and waste lots of time trying to figure out how to grow in holiness. Each year we are able to follow and meditate on the life of Our Lord. And each year the Church provides us with the means to expand and enlarge our understanding of the mysteries of our faith.

Lent represents a time of growth for us. The church maintains an attitude of quiet. Bells are silenced and alleluias are not heard. There is less to distract us from our mission of prayer and fasting. In the quiet, hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, acting through the Church, as it calls you to conversion of heart and mind.