Lenten Reflection (part 1)

lenten calendar CHALLENGE and REFLECTION: 

MARCH 17, Tues -  Look for evidence of God at work in your life today.

 

this was yesterday. but i appreciated its value only today. i looked back at yesterday and felt that i had focused my energy on the ‘less’ than the ‘more’; on the things i dont have, rather than the evidences of God’s good work for my life.

and i felt so ashamed for my selfishness and ill-will towards people!

i have been blessed by God. i have a job that sustains my family’s needs. our car is not earning as much as it should have, but it suffices our needs for the day. i am able to assist my family’s financial needs. and i am so blessed for many things than i deserve and should be thankful for!

i know i have to make amends with those people i may have hurt: Nanay and Manang Merce. and make them realize that i love and respect them, and i am willing to help them the best way i can.

MARCH 18, Wed - Deal with anyone in your life who may be interfering with your relationship with God.

 

ye, ryt. and so i dealt with ME.

i have been in constant gloom since the beginning of the week, much to my consternation. it’s as if a lump of cumulonimbus cloud enveloped my entire being. i have been grumpy, irate and in a fighting mood almost all the time. i’ve been snapping and lashing at almost everyone who stands in my way.

if you ask me if other people feared my reaction, i bet they did. but it did not make me happy and it will NEVER make me happy. senseless beating is like a draft in the desert, a howling wind in a ghost town. so that makes me ridiculus and absurd.

and so i sought outside help, knowing full well that i might get trap into the dark abyss if i had not aimed for an external force to pull me out of the crevasse.

thankfully, Bro. Bo Sanchez lovingly reached out his hand; and Beliefnet, an old appendage, welcomed me back with open arms.

LEARNINGS:

• Be thankful for the blessings in your life, and for the adversities that come your way.

• A closed fist will not be able to give, and will never ever receive.

• Pleasure is an outside job. But HAPPINESS is an inside job. (excerpted from Bro. Bo Sanchez’ post)

• You will not be able to get out of a quicksand without an outside help.

PRAYER:

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen