Catholic Community

"Lenten Sacrifices"

As we are mid-way through the Lenten season, how are you doing with your small sacrifices and/or added "crosses" you've taken on? I find that about this time every year I lose sight of my goals, get bored, lazy or just plain tired and want to give up. But this is also the time that I give myself a good swift kick (mentally) and remind myself that "I've made it this far, so don't give up now" pep talk. What if Jesus had given up the second or third time he'd fallen under the weight of that cross he was carrying up to the hill of cricifixion? How easily we give up and and get knocked off our path. I constantly have to pray for help and forgiveness when I do mess up.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the news is full of negative things during this yearly time of sacrifice before we again celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ's rising at Easter. Maybe it just seems more prominent than usual, but on the other hand, maybe the earth and our society are going through their own "purging" time also. Wouldn't it be wonderful if at Easter, we all woke up to a beautiful world that has somehow cleaned itself up a bit? This is what I mean by "Lenten" newsworthy events:

1) The animal cloning experiments are closely being watched and legislation may soon follow banning human experimentation.

2) Flooding is predicted to be the worst in three centuries for the U.S.(Talk about trials for those poor victims!) It also has been snowing in Hawaii!!! Unseasonal storms and tornados have caused mega damage to President Clinton's home state.

3) The head of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, Ron Fitzsimmons has finally admitted that he is guilty of "lying through my teeth" concerning the statements he made about partial birth abortions. They are a lot more commonly used by perfectly healthty mothers who merely want to get rid of their children than he'd previously stated. This gruesome proceedure, he now says, is not just used when the mother or fetus is in danger of death or deformity; it is just another convenience.

4) The miracles and "Signs and Wonders" continue to multiply at such a rate that even the secular media is paying attention. In the past several weeks, I've seen reports of apparitions featured on "Unsolved Mysteries", on the local news, in the newspapers, etc. NOTE: I have also seen with my own two eyes what appears to be another Eucharistic Miracle locally. Many are reporting that they can clearly see the awesome images of Jesus, Mary and angels in the monstrance host at one of your Perpetual Adoration Chapels.

5) The "We're all at risk" campaigned launched several years to make the public believe that AIDS was an across-the-board disease has turned out to be a propoganda campaign not based in truth.

As I write this article today, a local news crew is driving away after interviewing my husband and I about the new Bluebonnet speedway that's shortly to come blowing through 3/4 of our front yard. I guess I'll have to live this message myself and hope that the sacrifices that we either choose to make, or that are made for us, will have a good outcome if they are lived in the right way. After all is said and done, all we can do is trust that God's plan is bigger and better than ours, and that if we practices our little sacrifices in the right spirit, we will benefit tremendously in the end.

Don't forget to remember your deceased friends and relatives during this glorious season of preparation. And if you want further information, help, inspiration, news, beautiful gifts and books, please patronize St. Joseph's Bookstore. Without your support and patronage, they don't have a "prayer" of making it. (If all of the "little people" would ban together and make their wishes known, so many things could change for the better.) We have to support our community through prayers, caring and patronage. If we don't, who will?

May Jesus and His beautiful Mother continue to hold us in Their plams.

Angie Ledbetter