Lent

Lent began a little early this year, with Ash Wednesday last Wednesday. So we are five days into it.

I am making a conscious effort to make a "good" Lent. One thing I am going to do is try and use the Magnificat prayer book on a very regular basis, with the hope that this very good habit will carry over past Lent.

Magnificat is a publication with a modification of Divine Office prayers which vowed religious are required to pray during the day. The goal of course is to sanctify your day. Brigid and I have had a subscription to Magnificat pretty much since they started publishing it about eight years ago. It is a  monthly publication in a convenient size, and has morning and evening prayer, the day’s Mass prayers and readings, a daily meditation (very interesting; sometimes by a contemporary author, sometimes a classic), and other good stuff.   

Unfortunately we’ve both gotten out of the habit of using it regularly. I am going to try and get back into it. So far these five days, I haven’t been perfect, but I am using it semi-regularly.

And I am going to try and read (as I always make a special effort to do during Lent) several good, spiritual books. Last year the best one I read was a book by Fr. John Neuhaus entitled "Death on a Friday Afternoon". As the title implies, a meditation on Christ’s passion and death – the "seven last words."

This year I am going to read Fr. Ronald Rolheiser’s book "A Holy Longing" which was given to me a couple of years ago by my friend John Lally (actually it may have only been a long term loan, but I still have it) but which I’m only now getting around to. I’ll read it that is, when I find it again, since having had it a few days ago I have misplaced it.  I hope to also read another of Neuhaus’s books, "As I Lay Dying", which is about his own near-death from cancer several years ago.

Also on my short term list "Spontaneous Healing" by Andrew Weil, MD, sub-titled "How to Discover and Enhance Your Body’s Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself".  And a history work, "the Fall of the Dynasties" written in 1963 and sub-titled "The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922."

AND, I want to lose five or six pounds. That’s about the amount I’ve gained since my MSK discharge back in January 2006. I’ve decided it’s not about exercise for me – I am doing  enough of that – it’s about avoiding over-eating.

So that’s the game plan, subject to modifications – like if I can’t find the Rolheiser book. I may have to substitute a re-read of a Fr. Raymond Brown (the great Catholic scripture scholar) book for Rolheiser.