Preparing for Holy Week

Lent is coming to an end. This Sunday is Passion Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the climax of the liturgical year. Both Catholic papers prepare us for our own renewal and rebirth. One spiritual writer explains the need for the forty days. We need the time to reflect on what God desires of us, obeying, being reconciled with others and  showing mercy.

When we visit the Blessed Sacrament, attend Mass,  read the scriptures, we are always open to receiving directions for our life. We have to prepare the receptacle remembering the words of St. Thomas: "Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver." Which means that we can do much to distort the message we receive with our personal receiving set. 

The spiritual life includes all of life, everything we do all the time. The writer mentions that to become proficient in mathematics you have to start with something like the multiplication table; to learn English you need to know vocabulary with these basics you begin the mastery of your subject: the same is true in the spiritual life.
 
There are those that say you don't need a religion to be good, to love your neighbor, to be humble. Yes, but without a rock-like  foundation, he says, all will crumble. We have to know why we are to be good, be humble. It is when we know the answers that when the rain comes we will not be overcome.

With the rock foundation, we are changing every day. Every day is met with freshness, and hope. There are so many who meet the new day, he laments, without meaning. They are fools he says.
 
With a mature spiritual life, each day is full of great joy and expectation we can enjoy to the full; the morrow  is momentous and precious. God has put everything that we need inside of us. We are programed to follow God's blue print for us. Those who have done this know the joy that comes from this kind of life.