liturgical year | Revolution of Love

Here is the first of two posts from my better half, just in time for Lent.

by Brian

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2157), “The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Saviors grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father…” Why is it important for Catholics to dedicate their day to God? I can offer three reasons:

1) By dedicating our day to God, we are giving back to God, what he gave to us – another day.
2) By dedicating our day to God, we unite ourselves to the priestly office of Jesus Christ whereby our entire day becomes a “spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
3) It prepares us, before we tackle the challenges that the new day will bring, to embrace the closing words of the liturgy – “go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.”
Two of the most attractive features about this spiritual practice of dedicating one’s day to God, is that it is simple and time effective.
Simple – When I use the word “simple” to describe dedicating my day to God, I use it in the best possible sense. In my opinion, any prayer which is uncomplicated and straight forward is the most excellent. It doesn’t get any simpler than making the sign of the cross and in your own words thank God for the new day and pray for the grace to love and serve Him.
Time Effective – Another element that makes the “dedication” special is that it is time effective. What do I mean by time effective? As a husband and father with a growing family to look after, I rarely have an abundance of time to spend in daily prayer. Therefore, to be able to dedicate a new day to God in a way which is time effective is exactly what I need.
One thing I must caution the reader about is that this prayer needs to be prayed from the heart. Because the “dedication” can be both simple and time effective, it is easy to pray it in a manner that is routine and commonplace. To avoid this, I say my “dedication” with as much devotion and reverence as possible.
There are many spiritual tools that Catholics must put into practice in order to remain close to Christ. One tool that is vital to our spiritual life is to, dedicate each day to God. If you are doing this already, I encourage you to keep it up. If you are not, I would highly recommend that you begin.
God bless.

This morning my sister forwarded me an email from Holy Heroes’ Advent Adventures. It sounded interesting so I signed up. Check it out for yourself. Here is a copy of the email.

If your family life is anything like ours, it seems that Advent comes at the most hectic time of the year. It is easy for our children to get caught up in the commercialism, materialism, and the me-ism of the culture’s pre-Christmas (or should I say “holiday”?) frenzy.
Instead of the frantic activity of “Only XX shopping days left until Christmas!” the Church prescribes something different: prayerful, conscientious, joyful preparation for the days approaching our celebration of birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, you’re really busy.
You have a lot to do to prepare for the wonder of Christmas Day.
So, this year, here’s how you can prevent your Advent plans from being overcome by the hub-bub of what the world tells you is the proper way to spend “the Christmas season:”
Take your family on the fun, free, and easy “Holy Heroes Advent Adventure!”
It’s free, it costs you nothing, nada, zilch. And you’ll get almost daily fun, easy, free–and time-saving!–activities for Advent.
You’ll find that we have done all the work for you, so you can also enjoy the Advent Adventure with your family. And you will all–from youngest to oldest–actually learn something during Advent which (we pray) will help you on your way to heaven.
It’s free. Click here to sign up.
Nearly every day during Advent, we will send you an email with a link that takes you to that day’s activities.
You’ll see short videos, listen to short audio selections, download coloring pictures, word searches and games, take quizzes to see what you’ve learned, and more.
NEW IN ADVENT ADVENTURE 2010:
***New Jesse Tree videos and printable, colorable ornaments (complete with Scripture citations) plus–BONUS!–a video and ornament for every “O Antiphon” which we pray the last 7 days of Advent
***More quizzes suitable for all ages and abilities to reinforce what you’ve learned
***New coloring pages and fun based on Glory Stories artwork and audio recordings
***A new discount code for all Adventur-ers which not only gets you discounts on every order, but also some surprise free stuff, too
***Now available for purchase: our year-after-year re-useable Jesse Tree DVD! Yes, ma’am: it can be used EVERY Advent, year-after-year, because we added EXTRA videos and EXTRA printable, colorable ornaments which you won’t see online in our free Advent Adventure…so although Advent changes in length every year, you’ll always have enough content to fill your Jesse Tree (and no excuses for not finishing the tree you started–the kids can pop in the video every day whether you’re too tired or not!)
It’s free, it’s for children of all ages, it’s fun AND educational, and all you have to do every day is open the email we’ll send. Enroll your own family, or forward this email to your grandkids, nieces and nephews, and friends.
May God bless you and yours,
Your Advent Adventure Guides

Happy Easter to you all!! Here is an Easter post from Brian.

Easter Sunday

Two men in dazzling garments, said: “Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He is not here, He has been raised!” (Lk. 24:5-6).
Like the crucifixion, several of the stories surrounding the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, communicate to all believers the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. These three pillars are the foundation of the spiritual life. According to the CCC, paragraph (#1812) the theological virtues “dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive and object.”
Faith: The resurrection story which communicates the theological virtue of faith is that of the Apostle Thomas. Thomas did not believe that Christ rose from the dead – “Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side I will not believe.” (Jn. 20) And when the risen Christ appears to him, his attitude is completely changed, “My Lord and my God!” We must remember what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his second letter, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” (2Cor.5:7).
“Lord Jesus, I believe in You, help my unbelief.”
Hope: The second theological virtue, hope, can be found in the resurrection story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Downcast and confused the two disciples encounter a “stranger” along the road who asks them what they are discussing. They respond by telling this stranger about Jesus and how there have been reports about the tomb being empty. This stranger proceeds to talk to them about the Scriptures. It was later on at the breaking of bread that the disciples eyes are opened and they recognize that the “stranger” was the risen Christ. The disciples said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” St. Paul again reminds us in his letter to Timothy, “We have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men.” (1Tim4:10)
“Lord Jesus, I hope in You, dispel my doubts, fears and anxieties.”
Charity: The last theological virtue, and according to St. Paul, “the greatest,” is that of charity which can be found in the resurrection story of Mary Magdalene, visiting the tomb. Mary wept because the body of Jesus had disappeared. She turned away from the tomb and saw a man standing there. After asking him if he knew where they had taken Jesus, the man said, “Mary!” Mary immediately knew the man was Jesus. Mary sought Christ, wept for Him and reached out and held onto Him. Mary loved Jesus and by this love her life was transformed. “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.” (Jn. 15)
“Jesus, I love You, help me to love you more and more each day and to love my neighbor as myself.”
God bless!

Here is a great article for Lent from Catholic Exchange. (Note: It does not have any “Biggest Loser” tips!)
A Lenten “Weight” Loss Program

We pray that you all have a happy and holy Christmas! Thanks for being a part of the RoL family! 🙂
Here is a Christmas reflection from Brian’s blog.

A Christmas Reflection
Eternal Word of the Father
Heavenly Light dispelling all darkness and gloom
Come, Come and enter our hearts
Holy baby of Bethlehem
God with us!
Pure and undefiled
Love Incarnate
We worship You!
We praise You!
We adore You!
Little One, lying in a manger
Poor and humble
Have mercy on us!
Baby Jesus, Son of Mary
Conquer our richness with Your Holy Poverty
Conquer our pride with Your Holy Humility
Light of the world
On Christmas Day
clothe us with peace, joy and hope!
Amen.

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: liturgical year

Dedicate Your Day to God

Holy Heroes’ Advent Adventures

Easter Sunday 2010

A Lenten “Weight” Loss Program | Catholic Exchange

A Blessed Christmas 2010!