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Ash Woden’s Day
And so Lent begins today. This is the first year since my awkward and stumbling embrace of Catholicism began that I will not be observing the day or the season. It is a fitting coincidence that today also marks the anniversary of my receiving my honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps and became a civilian again. Leaving the Corps was an interesting experience, bringing with it a feeling of being unmoored and yet settled on a somewhat shrouded path. That’s a good description of how I feel today. I look outside and see the tiniest patches of green in the woods and little emerald dots along the length…
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In the Lenten Season
Yesterday on Ash Wednesday, while Catholics were filing into churches (the few that are open, that is) to assist at Mass and to receive the ashes upon their foreheads. While this ancient ritual was going on, I was sitting in a podiatrist’s office, describing my symptoms and listening to the proposed treatment. The joint of my great right toe has been very stiff and painful for some time, and has been increasingly difficult to flex. It has begun to affect my gait, and I figured I’d better have it looked at before the warm weather arrives and my activity level increases with the arrival of grass and weeds and so…
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Prayer Request — With Update
My dear friend and spiritual adviser Father James Conner, who lives at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, advised me this morning that he has sustained an injury. He apparently blacked out for no discernible reason and struck his head, causing a gash that required 12 stitches to close. He’s now on a heart monitor for a couple of days so that the cardiologist can try to ascertain the cause of the syncope and the best course of treatment. If you pray, please intercede for Father James. He is one of the kindest, deepest men I have ever met. He is very much at peace over these events, but…
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Ash Wednesday
God has given different gifts to different people. There is no basis for feeling inferior to another who has a different gift. Once it is realized that we shall be judged by the gift we have received, rather than the gift we have not, one is completely delivered from a false sense of inferiority. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen And the season of Lent begins. May our loving Father bless all those who sincerely use this season to seek a more intimate knowledge of Him and His ways. ~ S.K. Orr