It's Lent! Have a Feast!

Here's something I think is worth reading and sharing.

Fasting and Feasting

by William Arthur Ward

Lent should be more than a time of fasting. It should be a joyous season of feasting. Lent is a time to fast from certain things and to feast on others. It is a season in which we should:

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal Truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.

Have a meaningful Lenten journey, everyone!

Blog Unstuck!

Advent and Christmas have come and gone. Two of my favorite seasons of the year over in a blur. And here I am -- my blog, at least -- still stuck in Halloween. Now that's not such a nice place or time to be stuck in, is it?

With 2012 just a few days' old, I would love to say that, from this day onward, I will write and publish a new post everyday. I would love to promise to update my blog every morning. I would love to resolve to be a more diligent and committed blogger. But, nah! That just isn't me. I know I am bound to slack off sooner than later.

For now, I am happy to get this blog unstuck. For the moment, I will leave it at that.

Remembering the Forgotten

A nun gave me a card with this prayer during the Holy Week a few years back. Soon after, I started saying the prayer daily. I would like to think that, in doing so, I am able to help ease, aid, or maybe even hasten the passage of souls into heaven -- especially those for whom prayers are no longer said.

In May last year, my husband revealed that he had had a sighting -- a ghost sighting, that is -- of a woman and a child in the centuries-old apartment where we had been staying in Krakow. They looked, he said, as though they were asking for help.

That got me thinking... Maybe I should make special mention of them whenever I say the prayer for forgotten souls. So I did.

Months later, I just had this strong sense that it was okay to stop praying for them, that somehow they had moved on to a better place and were finally enjoying the peace that had evaded them for so long. I have no way of verifying that, of course. But by faith, I believe it to be true.

Today I share the prayer with you in the hope that you will take time to say it -- for the many lost, restless and forgotten souls who continue to yearn for everlasting repose. The prayer won't take a minute, but I am certain its fruits will reverberate into eternity.