Always Advent

I went to a Byzantine rite Easter Sunday liturgy several years ago, and they spoke Slovak (I think…) I learned this little dialogue they do in the East during Eastertime: you go up to someone and say “Christos voskresy!” And they respond, “Voistinue voskresy!”

In English, this is, “Christ is risen!” and the response, “He is risen indeed!”

I also learned about where the tradition of the Easter basket comes from. In the East, everyone coming to Divine Liturgy on Easter morning would bring a basket containing all the foods and other things they gave up for Lent–meat, dairy products, sweets, wine, etc. After Liturgy, the priest would bless all the baskets and then everyone would go off for their Easter feast.

I tried to explain this once to some super-Protestants (the kind who boycot not only Halloween but all the accoutrements of every Christian holiday: no Christmas tree, no Easter baskets, etc.) Even when I told them the Christian origins of the Easter baskets, they still said they would not take part in that custom. Oh well. My children and I enjoy this tradition even more now that we know it’s not just a secular thing. One year one of my children gave up potato chips, so she got a massive bag of Ruffles in her basket. This year two of my children gave up meat on more than just Fridays (I think they were trying to do it Monday and Wednesday also) so they got bags of beef jerky in their baskets this year.

Happy Easter to all!

Other than The Passion of the Christ and Jesus of Nazareth, I mean.

A great movie for the whole family to watch together sometime during Holy Week is The Prince of Egypt. I first saw this movie with my family in the theatre on Holy Saturday, 1998. That was quite an experience. It has some cartoonish elements, like the Egyptian priests and an outlandish chariot race, but overall it is a respectful and moving treatment of the story of Moses.

The direct-to-video sequel, Joseph: King of Dreams is actually quite good also.

Epic Stories of the Bible is a series of animated motion pictures released by Promenade Pictures. Twelve movies are in the works, and first one, available now, is The Ten Commandments. Voice talent on this one includes Ben Kingsley (Narrator), Christian Slater (Moses), Alfred Molina (Ramses), Elliott Gould (God). The screenwriter also wrote the screenplay for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I haven’t seen this one but I heard it was good.

Promenade Pictures
founded 2003
produces family films with Judeo-Christian themes
Frank Yablans (formerly of Paramount and MGM)

the next planned films
Noah’s Ark
David and Goliath

Feel free to weigh in with your recommendations!

I’m following up a bit on a “Soul Hack”** post of mine from a couple days ago about a Lenten all-media fast. Here’s a bit more on that subject from an excellent article in GodSpy by Angelo Matera:

Pascal said “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness” is that he doesn’t know “how to stay quietly in his room.”

That suggests something you can do for Lent—nothing. It’s not too late.

and

One reason we’re addicted to activity is that it takes our mind off questions we don’t like to ask—What’s the meaning of life? What happens when we die? Why does God allow evil? These are the questions that Pascal said gave rise to distractions like fox hunting—and today, monster truck shows. Being a Christian doesn’t settle these questions, otherwise theologians would be out of work. And the spiritual growth that comes from grappling with the answers is a life-long process.

To read the full article go here: The Joy of Nada: Doing Nothing for Lent

** “Soul Hack”? What the heck is that? A Soul Hack is a spiritual Life Hack–a technique or trick that makes things in your life and work better, easier, more efficient, more organized. If you’ve never heard of Life Hacks before, try these two websites:

LifeHacker
Lifehack

I did a quick Google search on “Soul Hack” and I don’t think anybody’s using it in the sense in which I’m using it–something you can do to shake things up in your spiritual life in order to better effect your ongoing transformation in Christ. Perhaps I just coined a phrase. Clever me! :)

See yesterday’s entry:

Lenten Change-Up: Fast From All Media

I had an idea for a little Lenten change-up, something to take the focus off food: a complete media fast, perhaps once a week if possible, or one afternoon or evening per week.

no movies
no TV
no video games
no computer
no email
no internet
no chat or instant messaging
no radio
no CDs
no newspaper
no magazines
no books
no phone
no texting

In other words, no “canned” input of any kind.

If you want music, you must play it yourself or go to a concert and hear it live.
If you want games, you must get out the cards or a board game and play with actual people.
If you want written words, you must write them.
If you want conversation, you must conduct it face-to-face with a live human being.

Isaiah 58:6 says “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke.”

Do you feel unjustly bound by your email inbox? Oppressed by the constant barrage of noise from the various screens and speakers throughout your house? Crushed under a yoke of unread newspapers, magazines, books?

I don’t have cable or satellite TV and I only get one broadcast channel on my set; I don’t have a video game system; I don’t own a cell phone; I don’t even know how to do internet chat. In other words, I live a pretty quiet life already with regards to media, but even I often feel overwhelmed by input.

I’m already “fasting” from radio/music in the car during my daily commute, but I’m going to try this one night a week, at least, for the rest of Lent. I can tell you already that the hardest part for me will be “no books.” But the written word, good as it is, is a form of input that, if never silenced, has the power to drown out the voice of God. In his book, The Rhythm of Life, Matthew Kelly writes, “You can learn more in an hour of silence than in a year from books.”

A positive list of what you CAN do during a media fast:

write letters to elderly relatives who don’t have email
go for a walk
light a fire and sit with people and drink wine and talk
play a board game
bake bread
pray the Rosary
pray in silence without the aid (crutch?) of a text of any kind
you get the idea

Related stuff elsewhere on the internet:

Tim Ferriss: Experiments in Lifestyle Design — “Low-Information Diet & Selective Ignorance”

Leo Babauta: Zen Habits — “Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment”

Merlin Mann: 43 Folders — “Inbox Zero”

“It is a very fine thing to feel ashamed of oneself when one realizes one’s own imperfections and misery, but the feeling must not drag on lest one lose heart. It is necessary to raise the heart to God with a holy confidence, founded not in our strength but in God. We indeed change, but God never does; He always remains equally good and merciful toward us, whether we are weak and imperfect or perfect and strong. I always say that our misery is the throne of God’s mercy, and so we must realize that the greater our misery, the greater should be our confidence in Him.”
(St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Discourses II; O. VI, p. 22

“During the course of the day, recall as often as possible that you are in God’s presence. Consider what God does and what you are doing. You will see His eyes turned toward you and constantly fixed on you with incomparable love. Then you will say to Him, “O God, why do I not look always at You, just as You always look at me? Why do You think so often of me, O Lord, and why do I think so seldom of You?” Where are we, O my soul? God is our true place, and where are we?”

(St. Francis de Sales, INT. Part II, Ch. 12; O. III, p. 92)

Gabrielle at Contemplative Haven has a good quote from Thomas Merton:

Today, before the seventh and eighth stations of the Cross, I was terribly conscious that I was only saying words. The Lord permits our indifference before the Stations of the Cross so that we may realize that at best we are still indifferent to His sacrifice, and can’t be anything but indifferent. We cannot suffer His pains, unless He lets us do so in a miracle – we can suffer our own indifference to His pains. To realize that God is dying and that we are indifferent is to stand on the edge of an inconceivable agony.

http://gabrielle.stblogs.com/2008/02/18/monday-morning-with- merton-inconceivable/

Father, look on us, your children. Through the discipline of Lent, help us to grow in our desire for you.

–concluding prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, Tuesday in Week 1 of Lent, Morning and Evening Prayer

–

St. Catherine of Siena was a 14th century mystic and doctor of the church. In her book, The Dialogue, she listed four interior qualities we should strive for in order to make our reception of the Holy Eucharist more fruitful. These qualities are faith, love, conversion and desire.

Faith means believing that what we’re receiving in Holy Communion is truly Our Lord Jesus Christ. Love means to give ourselves in service and charity to God and neighbor. Conversion means to turn our hearts away from our sinfulness and our false self and toward Jesus. Desire is an inner longing for communion with God.

All four of these qualities work together to deepen our Eucharistic devotion, but desire provides the motivation to grow in the other qualities. If we don’t really want God, our faith will be weak, our love lukewarm, our conversion half-hearted and our reception of Holy Communion won’t bear much fruit in our lives.

Give up bitterness; turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred; return good for evil.
Give up negativity; be positive.
Give up complaining; be grateful.
Give up pessimism; look for the good.
Give up harsh judgments; think kindly thoughts.
Give up worry; trust Divine Providence.
Give up discouragement; be full of hope.
Give up anger; be more patient.
Give up pettiness; be more mature.
Give up gloom; enjoy the beauty all around you.
Give up jealousy; pray for trust.
Give up gossiping; control your thoughts.
Give up sin; turn to virtue.
Give up criticism; see the good in others and in yourself.

(Author unknown)

-
by Clare Siobhan

Fasting simply means going without food for a time. Many people have undergone a fast for medical reasons, such as before getting a blood sample drawn or before surgery, or for other health reasons, and in these cases the rules are clear: “No food or water after midnight the night before,” for example.

The Catholic Church also prescribes a fast for our spiritual health, on two special days during the year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Here, too, the rules are clear:

No meat. Only one full meal that day. Two smaller meals that together do not add up to one full meal. No food between meals.

This is the minimum penance required by the Church, and even then it is not binding if it impairs your ability to work or otherwise perform your duties on those two days. Fasting is not dieting; it is a spiritual practice.

The Church encourages us to do more, though, if we can, and make regular fasting and penance part of our lives, year-round. If you’re old enough, and if you’re not expecting or nursing a baby, and if your health permits it, try one of these fasts:

• Observe the old-fashioned Catholic custom of eating no meat on Fridays even when it’s not Lent. Many people are unaware of the fact that we are really expected to abstain from meat on all Fridays, even outside of Lent. However, church law says we may eat meat on Fridays if we substitute some other form of penance.

• On Wednesdays and Fridays, consume bread and water only. This is a popular fast, promoted by the Marian devotion movement.

• On Wednesdays and/or Fridays, consume nothing except water all day. (Or black tea only, which the Irish called a “black fast.”) Break your fast with your family at dinnertime. If you want to extend the fast, begin it the night before by passing up dessert and eating no snacks that night. And if you’re skipping breakfast, no fair sleeping in: get up at the regular time and spend that time in prayer.

• Eat three meals a day as usual, but consume nothing between meals and skip all desserts or other sweets.

• Follow the rules of fasting normally observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: partial breakfast, partial lunch, full dinner, no snacks, no meat. Poor Clare nuns, following the practices of St. Francis and St. Clare, fast like this every day: 365 days a year. Try fasting like this for the 40 days of Lent.

• Resolve not to have a second helping of anything. To make this even more penitential, have someone who doesn’t know you’re doing this load your plate for you, so you’re not tempted to give yourself a second helping at the front end.

But why would anyone want to do this? Yes, fasting is a form of penance and reparation for sin, but how does going without food help us grow closer to Jesus? What do I mean when I say that fasting is the “bat phone” to the indwelling Holy Spirit?

Here are a few things I’ve experienced and learned from fasting:

The self-control learned from fasting spills over into other areas of life. If you can learn to control your appetite for food, you can also control your other appetites.

When I haven’t eaten all day and I’m hungry and tired, I feel a greater unity with the poor and a greater desire to help them, because they often must fast not by choice but because they have no way to get food. Jesus is very close to the poor.

When I’m so hungry that even birdseed begins to look appetizing, I have a greater understanding for people who chase after all the wrong things in order to satisfy their spiritual hunger. If my body starts to complain after only a few hours without food, imagine the many souls who are suffering deeply after going for years without Jesus, the only true spiritual food.

I realize that sometimes I eat mindlessly, out of boredom, or to comfort myself. Fasting teaches me to make use of food and other comforts more mindfully and with greater appreciation. Fasting empties us out so that God can fill us up.

If a fast is going well (not by my own efforts but by God’s grace), my body stops complaining and a spiritual awareness kicks in. My desire for food disappears, in fact. I become interiorly docile and peaceful, and my body and my mind become aware of what my spirit lives daily—longing for the day of perfect union with Jesus. “My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me keeps vigil for you.” (Isaiah 26:9)

Just as often, a fast won’t go so well, and I arrive home from work hungry and irritable. That is the time to humbly accept my human weakness and break my fast so that I can contribute to a peaceful, happy atmosphere in my home and not make my penance a cross for the people I live with.

Fasting is definitely worth doing. If you have trouble persevering in a fast, try offering it up for a particular intention or for a particular person who needs your prayers. Use your fast to make reparation for a specific fault or sin—one of your own or one of the “societal” sins, such as abortion, sins against chastity, pornography, gambling, and so on. God will honor every effort.

(This article originally appeared in the Family Centered Faith Formation News, volume 4, issue 6, February 2007, produced by the Holy Trinity Office of Religious Education, Westmont IL)