pray+fast+give for a cause

Hello Friends,
Today consider offering your prayers for children.  Specifically for children who may never be given a chance.  Take a few moments today or this weekend to check out any or all of the sites below.  Get more informed about abortion and let's all pray together.
Take a minute and a half to watch this video.
Check out the Endangered Species campaign in Atlanta.
Live Action.
Spiritually adopt a baby as an individual or with a group.
Information from the Bishops.
Just the facts.

Monday Morning Gut Check

One of the suggestions from Joe Paprocki's Webinar was to set aside time weekly to check how Lent is going.  He suggested setting aside a little time on Sunday to take stock of how things are going and to recommit to our commitments or set new ones if our original commitments aren't right.  

Taking a break on Sunday or changing things isn't weak or silly or immature.  Lent is about strengthening and deepening our relationship with Christ and, like all relationships, that means admitting we are wrong sometimes and adjusting when things aren't working out.

If you didn't stop to think about how Lent is going yesterday.  No worries, mate.  Try it next week.

Now it is time for the Monday Morning Gut Check. If you are reading this you are bound to answer the following question (whenever you read this, it doesn't have to be Monday): 

pray+fast+give, are you all in?

You can answer in the comment box below, anonymously.  You may answer one of two ways: "all in" or "nope, please pray for me." Again, post anonymously and if you answer anything but the two answers above I will delete it!

Monday Morning Gut Check has begun!

Let us pray for everyone that answers, especially those who aren't "all in" yet.

Share a Story

This post is for anyone to share a Lenten reflection in the Comments section.  If you hear or read something good through out the season please share it here.  If you are looking for something good through out the season please come back here and look 8)

pray+fast+give in hones+y

Last night I ate dinner and fell asleep on the couch around 7.  I woke up at 3:34am to this text:

Love you. Love reading you words. Grateful for your example. Went to church today.

It was the blatant honesty of the message that hit me.  Talk about putting it all out there (in less than 160 characters) for someone you love.  Lent is about an honest struggle with God, let's pray today that we can stay in the fight for a stronger faith and be challenged to let that honesty and struggle for something better into all our relationships.

Today, pray+fast+give in hones+y.

Ash Wednesday

pray+

May God strengthen you through your sacrifices today!  Don't forget to offer your fasting for the intention of growing closer to God through the next forty days.  Our physical hunger is a great reminder of our spiritual hunger for God.

fast+

Today is a day of fasting and abstaining from meat for all adults.  Fasting is consuming one regular-sized meal and two small meals with no eating in between.  We don't have to come up with this one on our own, it is given to us by the Church.

give+

Today give everyone in your life loving smiles.  A lot of people will be looking at your face, especially if it has an ashen cross on it.

Pray, Fast, Give Alms

Last year I was talking to a friend on Ash Wednesday.
"What are you going to do for Lent?"
"I am going to /insert whatever here/. What are you going to do for Lent?"
"I am going to /insert whatever here/."
The time came to leave.

"Well, I am going to go eat some rice."

"I have some tuna and noodles waiting for me."

"See you later, Happy Ash Wednesday!"

And I thought to myself, did I just say that?  

"Happy day of thinking about all the ways you have failed Jesus."

"Happy day of fasting and thinking about your eternal soul."

"Happy day of walking around with ashes on your head and explaining that to everyone you meet."

None of that makes sense...it isn't a happy day.  So I try to save it by saying, "Um, I mean, Happy Lent."

Which doesn't make any sense either.

"Happy 40 days of struggling against your fallen human nature."

"Happy seven weeks of abstaining from meat on Fridays."
"Happy season of trying to understand your mortality."

It was one of those situations where I just "Well you know whatever..." and melted into the wall thinking about what an idiot I am.

It is indescribably beautiful to devote the time to becoming closer to Christ*.  But it isn't happy.  If you do it right it is holy and loving, but it is also soul scathing and painful.  It is hard to change.  So this year I thought it would be great to find a way to first of all, not say anything dumb because I need all the help I can get on that one, and second, encourage each other.

Pray, Fast, Give, is what Lent is about.  Fasting is the most common association people have with Lent, ie "giving things up", but we are actually called to all three things.  You have probably done this without even realizing it.  For example, if you have given up eating out in the past, you fasted from eating out, you gave the money you would have spent on eating out to the hungry, and you prayed for the people you donated to and for yourself.

pray+fast+give is a resource for Lent for whoever would like to use it.  The goal is to build a community of love throughout this season of Lent.  Consider committing to the three-fold commitment of Lent this year and to show that commitment sign off all of your emails with pray+fast+give.  Of course, people will ask what that means.  You can choose to direct them to this Web site or to tell them about Lent yourself.  If you choose the later please don't just share the liturgical explanation but your own personal commitment and experience of Lent.  You don't need to say a lot, your demeanor during the season of Lent will be speaking pretty loud already.

I'll post with ideas and direction.  We'll all walk it together.  Isn't technology wonderful?  Gratias ago Deus pro internet. (That is Latin for Thank God for the internet.)  Please make full use of the internet to email me your struggles, joys, prayer requests, or anything else.  Part of being Catholic is living in community.  We are never alone.

Lent minus one day but let's have the first question of PFG.  This is one my priest asks every Ash Wednesday: What area of your life do you need to focus on to grow closer to God?


Think about it today, I'll be praying for you.






*Thus you are going to become indescribably beautiful over these 40 days.  Even when you don't feel like it, just forge ahead it's true.