Lenten Reflection
Lent is a time of preparation.
Some of us give up alcohol, chocolates and / meat among other culinary delights. I wonder if any of these alter the weight of Jesus, the Holy Spirit or God the Father.
This Lent, may we be inspired to be more loving? In a more Solid rather than liquid way?
Solid love is about being Christ-like, servant-like, more about the other than about me-and this is rooted in knowing and believing that we have first been loved by Christ as proven on the Easter Tree.
As a married person perhaps I can be more attentive the needs of my husband/wife and to the call to be a mirror of Christ's love for humanity. As a single person I can give more time to our parish comunity or someone who has less time. As a child I can be more thoughtful of my siblings and parents.
here is my reflection for Lent.
(Aba and her husband David are parishioners of St Maria. Her reflections are fruits of their pilgrimage to the holy land in October 2014. It is hoped that they inspire prayer. Aba is a theology student of Maryvale Institute-Birmingham, UK.)
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As it was…
Morning tweeting (not social media) of the birds happens without a drum, piano or words
The blowing wind does his thing with no effort from you, wonderful technology or me
The sound of the seas and the rivers, the crushing of the high waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the gentle little waves of the Mediterranean, leave us in awe which we don’t create, can change, take or break
Majestic tall trees forming the famous Ghanaian Canopy walk, the many creepy crawlies on the
forest bed can cause pain and yet don’t talk
Austrian mountains stand unmoved in full splendour, come winter, summer, autumn or spring –
All of these and more have their voice in proclaiming the glory of God…
Yet nothing surpasses the beauty of man and the beauty of woman, caught in the dramatic love of
marriage, now being desecrated by liquid love, a culture of death and all they leave in their wake.
The walk towards this gift is often excitable, though the gift itself of remaining married, in our day not fully unwrapped…
Yet who can deny the delights of the conjugal embrace1 in which God’s beauty is proclaimed,
experienced and received by both man and woman…this embrace(1) which “ignites” and invites The Author of the Universe into the marital sanctuary, to come, to bless, to increase, to multiply(2), fill the earth and subdue?
May it be so Lord, despite every deliberate and calculated lie from liquid love(3)
Grant us the grace to fully unwrap the gift of marriage in our day, right Now, as it was in the
beginning, Amen.
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Inspired by Caffara C. (1993) “Who Is like the Lord, Our God?” In Smith, J. (ed.) (1993)
Why Humanae Vitae was Right: A Reader, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 255-271:261.
1 “There are places in the created universe of being which the glory of God shines forth and lets itself be seen with particular splendour. One of these is the fertile conjugal act. In this and through this, indeed, a space is opened up in the created universe for a creative act of God, a holy place in which God shows his creative love”
2 Genesis 1:27-28. ‘God created man in the image of himself…male and female..blessed them saying…subdue it”.
3 Liquid love destroys true freedom which empowers us to forge relationships, love and serve beyond the small me, the ‘I’-see Evangelium Vitae 19 & 20
