How can I better prepare for Lent this year?

Q: Father John, How can I better prepare for Lent this year?

A: You have no idea what God has in store for you this Lent (but God does, and he is looking forward to it!). On the other hand, you do know that God has chosen to work in our souls through the Liturgy, and that includes the liturgical seasons. So preparing for Lent means getting ready to hear and heed what God wants to say to you during those days. The Church gives us three general directives in this regard.

First, intensify our prayer life

Start thinking now about how you can do this. It’s a good topic to talk about in spiritual direction. Do you need to increase your Eucharistic life, give more discipline to your personal prayer time, inculcate family prayer time, go on a retreat? God will put something on your heart. But be realistic. Don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach (in the spiritual sense).

Second, embrace the Cross

Lent is a penitential season, a time when we remember how self-centered we have been and tend to be, and renew our commitment and efforts at repenting and growing in Christian love. This is the origin of the tradition of “giving something up for Lent.” The idea is to make a sacrifice, denying our naturally self-indulgent tendencies in some way in order to unite ourselves more fully to Christ’s redeeming sacrifice on Calvary. This is not merely a self-help kind of resolution. It is a self-offering to God: “Lord, many times I have chosen to do my own will instead of yours. By offering this sacrifice I want to learn to take up my cross, to say “yes” to you and your will, following in Jesus’ footsteps.” Whatever we give up (e.g. watching sports, eating desert) or take on (e.g. daily Mass, weekly Way of the Cross) as our Lenten sacrifice (again, be realistic), the key is to give it that truly Christ-centered meaning.

Third, the practice Christian charity

Lent is a time to prepare for the fruitful celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection during Holy Week. That Paschal Mystery was God’s unfathomable and amazing testimony of love for us sinners. There is no better way to get in tune with that self-forgetful and self-sacrificial love than by imitating it. During Lent we should make a special point of serving our neighbors – but here again, be realistic. Here the traditional corporal works of mercy can spark ideas. The Catechism reminds us of them (#2447)

Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.243 Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God

Something in the air of spring brings out new buds, new branches, new life. The word “Lent” has its etymological roots in an Old English word meaning “spring.” Something in the air of Lent will bring out new buds, new branches, new life in our relationship with Christ; we just have to open up some windows.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

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Calling All Spiritual Directors

Dear Spiritual Directors,

As a part of an informal research effort for a book on spiritual direction, I would be grateful to expand the group of directors that I can tap into for questions from time to time. I am particularly interested in perspectives that might better prepare directees to effectively engage in the process of spiritual direction. If you are interested in assisting in this way, please send me an email to RCSpiritualDirection@gmail.com with your name and contact information. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him

Dan

How can I go deeper in my faith this Lent season?

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a great group of men at parish here in Colorado about my conversion to the Catholic faith. One of the things I shared was the unusual amount of personal suffering I have experienced. The short list of loss includes a brother and sister in their thirties and a niece at two years old. At a young age I have lived the difficult reality that life, for any of us, can end at any moment. Faced with this understanding, there really is no better time than the present to ensure that when we see God face to face he says, “well done” rather than “depart from me, I never knew you.” The latter is a terrifying thought, the former, a glorious one.

At the end of the talk, one of the men asked, “How would you advise someone who is ready to go deeper in their faith?” Here’s the “Going Deeper” plan for anyone looking to better prepare their hearts for this upcoming holy season:

1) Get a copy of “Inside the Passion” by Father John Bartunek and commit to reading a portion of it every day during Lent (starting Ash Wednesday, February the 17th) with a finish date of Tuesday the 1st of April – the day before Good Friday. If you finish this ahead of time, commit to one decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries on a daily basis or pray through the Stations of the Cross each day. A great way to do the latter is through the “Passion Companion” which also leverages the artwork of the film to held us better experience the Stations of the Cross devotion.

2) Commit to praying for five minutes (or add five minutes if you already pray) on a daily basis using any prayer that appeals to you (i.e. Our Father, Rosary, etc). Ask God to reveal himself more fully to you, just as the father of the sick boy in Matthew 9:24 asked Jesus, “…I do believe Lord, please help my unbelief.”

3) Watch the “The Passion of the Christ” on Good Friday. Be careful to watch it devotionally instead of from the standpoint of entertainment. Watch it at night just before you go to bed. Don’t pop any popcorn and keep the chips in the pantry. Prepare your heart and enter into the film. Pray that Christ would reveal himself to you. Engage with Christ as he gives his life up for you. Ask Him, “how can I give back to you in return for such an overwhelming gift?”

After Lent, use that same prayer habit you developed during lent (or further developed) and learn to know Christ more deeply. Pick up a copy of Father John’s book, “The Better Part.” Learn to meditate on the incredible person and work of Christ on a daily basis.

You will never regret your investment in your eternal destiny, and you will never be the same.

Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him

Dan

48. Hypocritical Hearts (Mt 15:1-20)

“The humble resemble a rock. Even though the rock lies downward, it is nevertheless firm. The proud are like smoke. Even though the smoke is lofty, eventually it disappears.”

- St Augustine

Matthew 15:1-20

Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem then came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do your disciples break away from the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat food.’ ‘And why do you’ he answered ‘break away from the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: Do your duty to your father and mother and: Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, If anyone says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is dedicated to God, he is rid of his duty to father or mother. In this way you have made God’s word null and void by means of your tradition. Hypocrites! It was you Isaiah meant when he so rightly prophesied: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless; the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.’ He called the people to him and said, ‘Listen, and understand. What goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes him unclean.’

Then the disciples came to him and said, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked when they heard what you said?’ He replied, ‘Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them alone. They are blind men leading blind men; and if one blind man leads another, both will fall into a pit.’ At this, Peter said to him, ‘Explain the parable for us’. Jesus replied, ‘Do even you not yet understand? Can you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes through the stomach and is discharged into the sewer? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is these that make a man unclean. For from the heart come evil intentions: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander. These are the things that make a man unclean. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean.’

Christ the Lord

Jesus shows once again that he is a merciful Lord. Instead of ignoring his Pharisaic interlocutors, he instructs them, hoping that maybe this time some light will penetrate their self-imposed, self-righteous blindness.

In the first place, he does for them what they can no longer do on their own: an examination of conscience. He points out that in their pursuit of legalistic and ritualistic exactitude, they have let selfishness run wild. Many religious leaders at the time had taken to dedicating their property and their wealth to the Temple, supposedly as sign of devotion. This gave them continued use of their possessions for the time being (until death, when it would revert to the Temple treasurers). It also meant that they had a good excuse not to use their wealth to support their aging parents – that would be an illicit profanation of sacred property. It was a convenient loophole that saved them a lot of trouble and inconvenience, while looking to all the world like a pious and commendable sacrifice. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy: they have preferred their own rabbinical practices (human tradition) to a clear precept of the Mosaic Law (divine revelation) purely out of self-interest.

Jesus always exposes our hypocrisy. We may ignore or dim or try to drown out the voice of conscience, but as long as we walk this earth, God continues to speak to our hearts in one way or another. It is the voice of the Lord, who knows us through and through, and longs for us to submit to his wise and redeeming lordship now, so we can enjoy eternal life in his Kingdom later.

Christ the Teacher

For the ancient Jews, there were two types of realities, the sacred and the profane. The Chosen People, because of the special privileges granted them by the one true God, had unique access to the sacred, that which belonged to God, the Holy One of Israel. They had his sacred Temple, a sacred priesthood, the sacred scriptures, and the Law, which governed both worship and behavior. At the same time, they lived in the midst of a fallen, profane world. As a result, they were constantly moving back and forth between the sacred and the profane. To help keep the proper attitudes amid this transit, the rabbinical schools had developed thousands of small traditions, related to but not stipulated by the divinely revealed Mosaic Law. Palestine’s religious leaders at the time of Jesus followed all of these traditions minutely, and were therefore called Pharisees, or “the perfect.” Among these traditions were many that had to do with ritual washings before eating. These were the ones the Pharisees accuse Jesus and his disciples of neglecting.

Jesus’ response elevates the argument. He points out, once again, that the Pharisees have inverted real religion. Religion is not about rituals, it’s about a relationship with God – friendship with and fidelity to the Lord and Creator lived out through obedience to his will. External, physical realities don’t determine whether someone is in communion with the sacred – rather, the attitude and decisions of the heart do. The Pharisees don’t love God; they love themselves and their pious prowess. Jesus invites them to take care of their souls by loving God and deciding to do what is right and pleasing to him, not by worrying over empty, man-made traditions.

Christ the Friend

Jesus seeks our hearts. What pains him about the Pharisees is that their hearts are far from him. The heart – the place where we decide if we will be self-indulgent or self-giving, where we decide to accept or reject Christ’s offer of friendship – the heart is the stage of the human drama. When Christ looks at us, he looks with love, but also with a smattering of anxiety: will we opt for him? Will we let his saving love guide us through life? It’s a decision he cares about more than any other, and it’s the only one that he can never make.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

PS: To learn more about The Better Part – A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, click HERE.

Spiritual Direction – A Bishop’s Perspective – Part I of III

Dear Catholic Spiritual Direction Friends,

A few of you know that I travel a great deal between Connecticut and Colorado. When I am in Connecticut my home parish is Our Lady of Lebanon, a  parish of the Eparchy of Saint Maron in Brooklyn. I have had the opportunity to encounter Christ in Churches in Jerusalem, Rome and the United States and have participated in the liturgies of many different traditions within the Catholic Church. One of the most beautiful of these traditions is the Maronite rite. I strongly recommend that those among you who appreciate the depth and riches of our liturgical traditions attend at least one Maronite Mass. In this tradition you will discover there are at least three different languages commonly spoken, Aramaic (the native tongue of Christ), Arabic, and English. As well, most of the Mass is sung in the deeply moving chant tradition of the east. Maronites have cherished and preserved the riches of their liturgy in a way that is often hard to find in the west.

During a recent visit to Our Lady of Lebanon I came across the pastoral writings of Bishop Gregory John Mansour of the Eparchy of Saint Maron Brooklyn. I was moved by his honest and thoughtful exploration of prayer and the liturgy and the sacrament of penance. It was immediately obvious that Bishop Mansour is a man of prayer and depth. After a brief correspondence he agreed to write a few posts on the topic of spiritual direction. Below you will find the first of three. To find out more about Bishop Mansour and the beauty of the Maronite tradition, follow the links at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him,

Dan

Spiritual Direction Part I of III

My spiritual director, Father John King, S.J., died June 13, 2008, while I was in Lebanon. He suffered from a brain tumor that took him in two months. I visited him in the hospital and then in the Jesuit infirmary at Fordham University. Two weeks before he died, during my last visit to him, I asked if his right hand still worked. “Are there any more blessings and pardon to be found there?” I placed his hand on my head; he smiled and thanked me for “being there” for him. John’s death was one more opportunity to “review my life,” as he would say each time he would give me absolution.

Beyond that of my parents, family, and friends, along with the ministry of Peter and the Church’s spiritual heritage, spiritual direction has been the most defining influence in my life. All during my seminary, priesthood, and service as bishop, I have seen my spiritual director on a consistent basis each month. Wise priests were my confessors and confidants. I hid nothing from them, and in each session I was challenged, comforted, advised, and – by the grace of God – absolved of my sins.

“Spiritual direction is not necessary for the ordinary Christian. But where there is a special mission or vocation a certain minimum of direction is implied by the very nature of the vocation itself.” These are the thoughts of Father Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, in his superb little book Spiritual Direction and Meditation. For those called to priesthood or religious life, spiritual direction is essential, but I would add that it is also essential for those who want to be more accountable, more honest with themselves, more generous with God and others, and more at peace with God and themselves. It may “not be necessary for the ordinary Christian,” but anyone who loves God and desires to do his will can benefit from this ancient discipline.

In my next post we will briefly explore the purpose of spiritual direction.

+Bishop Gregory John Mansour+

Bishop Mansour is the Bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn within the Maronite rite of the Catholic Church. Click here to learn more about Bishop Mansour, and the riches of the Maronite Catholic tradition.