I have made good on going to either mass or adoration every day. I have come to love adoration even more than I already did. I have the codes to get into two different adoration chapels at churches that are relatively close to work (4.5 miles and 6.5 miles).
I have quit my own brand of gluttony. Does saying it is "my own brand" make it sound less like a deadly sin? Probably not. I guess I call it that because I am not anorexic or bulimic. I am not grossly overweight. But I exercise a lot. And believe me, I am not thin. So in one week of not eating like a pig, I lost 3 lbs. That is measure of whether I am really doing what I said I would do.
This afternoon at adoration, a woman came to the chapel. She didn't know the code, so someone let her in. She made a lot of noise. She came and sat in the pew right behind me. I was sitting and she was kneeling, with her face in my hair. I don't know why she chose that place - the chapel had only 3 others in it at that time. Instead of being myself, I prayed for patience. I felt her presence, because she was very very close to me (in my personal space, one might say), and sensed that she was very troubled. She stayed only for five or ten minutes and then left. Just as noisily as she arrived.
Thank God I didn't get angry. And when I say "Thank God," that is exactly what I mean. Left to my own devices, I would have huffed and puffed and moved away from her. And that could not possibly be helpful to someone who is suffering terribly.
I pray God will continue to work on me to make the person HE intended me to be, instead of the person I created through my own self-will.
This may sound trivial but I've not played any Facebook games at all, deleted all the game requests and turned off posts. That is a big step for me, I love my farm but it was taking over. My goal is to not go back but replace it with something worthwhile. On the flip side, I have not exercised every day. I need to focus more on that. It sounds like you are doing very well with your Lenten activities.
ReplyDeleteI love your honesty, Mary Christine :) I have been in the situation you describe above so I can relate!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say that I have attended Mass daily this Lent but we keep on getting viruses over here. I don't get it - we were all healthy the entire winter but now that spring is about to arrive everyone has been getting sick. I guess there's not much I can do about it except hope that things improve.
I like your post on Lent and I think you might like my recent reflection because I think it relates to your situation.
ReplyDeleteThere is a dear woman who obviously suffers from dementia that occupies the perpetual adoration chapel at my church every Wednesday morning.
ReplyDeleteShe says the rosary over and over again out loud. One could follow along with her but for the fact that she says her own scrambled version of the rosary.Hence, the Hail Mary comes off as "Hail Mary, full of grace, and lead us not into temptation...", and so on. The prayers are sort of snatched bits tied together willy-nilly. No one is able to share the space with her for very long.