The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.
Many people associate the season of Lent with Catholicism, but that no longer holds true. Many other churches and people are choosing to observe the forty days (not including Sundays) before Easter. Lent is a time of penance, of choosing to look closely at our lives and invite the Holy Spirit in to help us clean house.
Often we will choose to give up something, a sacrifice we offer to the Lord, but also something we use as a way to remind us to be more holy, more dependent on God. We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and we abstain from meat on Fridays as well, although many Catholics do not understand that we still have an obligation to fast on Fridays or substitute another penitential practice year round. We are called to give alms during Lent.
These practices are meant to help us prepare to meet Jesus on Easter Sunday, having walked these six weeks with him toward Calvary, fasting as he fasted in the desert, carrying our cross as he carried his, doing the will of the Father as Jesus taught us so well.
Like Mary, we hope to find ourselves at the foot of the cross on Good Friday, still with our Savior, looking with a more hopeful and receptive heart toward the Resurrection.
If you are not a member of a church, or your particular church does not have any Ash Wednesday service, you are welcome to participate at any Catholic Church. You do not have to be Catholic to attend the service or receive the ashes. I’m sure that is true of other denominations as well.
Catholics, and many other Protestant denominations follow a liturgical calendar, which I find to be of great aid to me daily and yearly in my attempt to follow Jesus. Advent begins our new Church year, and we look forward to the birth of Jesus. We then celebrate Christmas for an Octave, and the season ends with Epiphany. Soon after comes Lent, and we cast our eyes toward Holy Week, and the death, and Resurrection, and we again spend eight days, another Octave, celebrating Easter. After Pentecost comes the long stretch of what the Church call Ordinary Time before we start again with Advent.
I find this yearly journey helps me keep an eye on where I am going. It helps me not just tread water spiritually, but make progress, and to more “live out” the life of Christ.
If your church has special services today or during Lent, please tell us about it, especially if visitors are welcome to participate. And don’t forget the Knights of Columbus fish fry on Fridays! Usually for five or six bucks you’ll get a get supper and help the Knights raise money for their charitable causes.
This post, and all of those you will encounter during Lent and Easter are meant to encourage us in our worship. If you choose not to worship, are not Christian, or have a grudge against specific faiths such as Catholicism , there are many forums online where you can debate or condemn. This is not one of them, and I will without any second chances ban anyone who breaks that rule. I’m sorry that this has become a necessary warning, but it has.
Today is Fat Tuesday, the culmination of the famous season of Mardi Gras.
Debauchery. Bacchanalia. Floats, costumes, beads and masks, and lots of drinking and partying. That’s what we think of when we hear the term Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday.
There is a lot more behind it. Also called Shrove Tuesday, it marks the last day of the liturgical calendar before Lent begins.
After Catholicism spread throughout Europe, many cultures celebrated the final day before Lent began in ways unique to that individual culture. Eggs, and milk were finished off in one day, giving rise to the term Fat Tuesday. In Poland, such things as lard, sugar, eggs, and fruit were forbidden during Lent, and the beloved pączki became a special treat for Fat Tuesday. In Detroit they still sell many thousands of them to long lines of people.
Enjoy your Fat Tuesday, and spare a thought to the next forty days. Why not observe Lent, and use the time to more deeply appreciate Christ’s sacrifice and his love for us?
I am sure you’ve seen people on Ash Wednesday with a cross traced on their foreheads. Many churches have Ash Wednesday services, and all are welcome. It’s a thought provoking way to begin your journey, to center and prepare yourself to make changes, to clean out some baggage and make more room for the truly important things.
This is a repeat post. I hope you will join us the next weeks as we look toward Good Friday and the Cross, with the goal of making ourselves a little more able to celebrate on Easter Sunday.
If this post isn’t your cup of tea, find another to comment on. The same goes for the Ash Wednesday post tomorrow, and the Sundays of Lent posts.
This story seems to start in an existing conversation. That’s because it actually does. This was my reply in a conversation over at Stella’s Place last April. One of our Treeper’s was talking about helping his dad downsize, and working with his sisters to clean out some old stuff. In that conversation, I told this really unusual story of an experience related to cleaning out my mother’s home.
I’m hoping some of you have some stories to relate, stories that end with a twist, like this one did. Sometimes life gives strange surprises.
Share a tale or two with us today.
T, my mother was a hoarder before it was a tv thing, and they are mostly probably amateurs. Don’t know, don’t watch. Boy have I got a funny, sad story for you, since Sharon put me in the mood for a good story.
This is one of the gosh darndest stories of my life. Apologies all, this is a long story.
My mother died in 1998, probably one of the peak periods of my life in terms of pressure, stress, kids still in high school, job, etc. She left a house that had a two to three foot wide path through it, with an empty spot or two on the couch, her chair, and less than half her king sized bed. No one had been able to see the kitchen table or counter for many years.
She also had four outbuildings that had to be cleaned out. My brother declared himself “unable to deal with it yet” and in the 4+ months it took to get it done, he remained unable to deal with anything but bringing his wife religiously every weekend to plunder what I’d uncovered that they wanted.
All my life I’d been super ashamed of how we lived, and I was even then. My two sons who were still at home would come help when they weren’t working. My husband did not get back from work until after 7:30 at night, so he was only able to help some on Sundays if I wasn’t at work then.
I was working at Home Depot and I was on the cusp of getting promoted from hourly department head to my first management position. Even though I could only work off days and mornings on the days I closed, I refused to accept help except from my husband and sons, and one of his sisters.
My mother would never tell me where any valuables were, and I couldn’t even find her important papers, which were not in the box at the bank. So, I could not just throw things out, especially papers, and she had all the usual hoarder magazines and newspapers from umpteen years ago, etc.
My sister in law and I found many, many things that made us go, huh? Bags of leaves in the closet, big green garage bags. In one storage building there were garbage bags full of paper towel pasteboard centers and empty milk jugs.
But the all time most baffling one was found in the built in wall hutch in the dining room of the old house. We opened the doors at the bottom, and the first thing I tried to remove was a smaller garbage bag. Only to find it didn’t budge, it was too heavy.
My sister in law had a real appreciation for antiques, and quite a bit of knowledge of them, and while I was miserable, she was ever hopeful of finding great treasure. She shoved me out of the way and began speculating what we might have found, even wondering if it might be a big chunk of gold.
So, I tore open the bag, only to find a big heavy thing wrapped in foil, tore off the foil, which was old and not tearing well. There were layers of paper towels. Our anticipation rose higher. Another layer of foil under paper towels, I’m not kidding, and one last layer of paper towels.
At that point, even I was excited. What could she have treasured that much to have so carefully wrapped and stored it?
Well, it was a big round, kind of flat on the bottom creek rock. I marched outside and tossed it off the porch into the grass and hedges.
Over the years I often wondered about that rock and why she kept it. She was a hoarder, but aside from whatever causes that, she wasn’t mentally ill. Of course, I resigned myself to never knowing. And this is where it gets really weird and interesting.
A few years later I was at work and heard my name being called. A new hire at the Depot introduced herself and explained that our mothers had been best friends. They’d met on a cruise ship, taken trips to Hawaii several times, and had lots of adventures here at home too. I became good friends with the daughter.
Eventually one day, years later when we were having dinner and talking about our moms, I told her and her partner the rock story. She got this really amazed look on her face and said “Menagerie, I can tell you why she had that rock.”
Every New Years the moms cooked black eyed peas and greens. I’m sure you know, it’s a Southern thang. They decided they wanted kraut. My Mama had tons of huge crocks. They made the best friend’s husband take them up Sand Mountain to a wide, shallow creek filled with big rocks.
Apparently they spent an hour or two making him wade and turn over rocks until he found one just the right size and kind of flat on the bottom. Perfect for mashing down the cabbage in the crock. And every year they had kraut on New Years.
My friend and I still laugh about it, and my sister in law was floored to finally have the mystery of Mama’s rock solved.
There is so much noise in the background of life, the simplicity of enjoying the day of Orthodox Christmas serves as a boost to the spirit.
Outside the fabricated mechanics of man, there is a lot of love and joy in the world.
Feel the hope and allow your spirit to rejoice. Also, I like this place.
.
Orthodox Church in Athens
Orthodox Churches in Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine that follow the Julian calendar, Epiphany is celebrated on Jan. 19, as their Christmas Eve falls on Jan. 6. Orthodox Christian churches in Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania celebrate the feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6.
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
This is a Christmas post. Absolutely no tolerance will be given to any off topic comments. Please respect the intent and nature of this post, keeping it open for Christmas greetings and comments.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
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