The Joyful Season of Lent

Lent is the time when the church changes its color into purple.

It is also the time when flowers are not permitted to be in the altar, the church also does not allow us to use loud instruments and does not allows us to sing the alleluia and the gloria.

In spite of all of these that the church removes all the symbols of happiness, the church still calls this season as the season of Joy. The joyful season of Lent.

When we said Lent, that is a german term which means spring time.

A new hope, a dawn of a great future.The coming of something that is beautiful and wonderful.

Cuaresma is comes from the word cuadragesima and cuarenta which means forty days, and in the bible when we said forty it is a time of purification.

During the time of noah, the rain falls on forty days and forty nights, as if to kill every creature in order for a new beginning to come.

It is a days of purification and reparation.

Days of destroying the old so that something new may be built.

Lent starts during ash Wednesday, but if you notice before, the formula that the church use was "Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return".

It emphasized that we are only a dust, it emphasized that we are sinful and unworthy in front of God.

But that has been change, the formula we are using now says, "Turn away from sins and be faithful to the Gospel." which means truly we are dust, truly we are sinful, truly we are nothing but we are so much valued by God that He has given his likeness to all of us, and more than that, because of us, His beloved Son offers His life.

Forty days wants to tell us, Hey, you are not just an ordinary, you are not cheap, you are now a child of God. You can now claim the Lord as your father and you are an heir of His kingdom.

What is the good news of lent?

.. The good news is that we still have hope and we are so much loved by God..

During Holy week, We begin the liturgy by commemorating the Palm Sunday, when actually the church calls it Passion Sunday. Truly we remember how he was welcomed with palms into the city of Jerusalem but the church also wants to tell us that it is the day that we read the Passion of Jesus. The pain and the suffering that He embraced for us sinners. But I think what we should remember is this, that even as we remember the pains He had to gone through, we should remember the love that pushed Him to embrace all of these.

Passion Sunday can be defined as two things:

Passion: suffering and pain of Jesus and

Passion as a tremendous love that pushed Him to claim the punishment that should be ours.

Thats why as we enter into the Holy week, It begins in telling us of what this God can do for us. We should be amazed by all of these, that sense of thanksgiving, that sense of saying "Lord, we are nothing without You".

That is why when we said Holy week, it is the days most solemn to the church.

On Maundy Thursday, we celebrate two things the anniversary of the priests and the feast of the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Because on that day during the last supper which we commemorate in the mass, Jesus in an unbloody manner, decided to offer Himself. When He took the bread and said "It is my Body" and when he took the cup and said "It is my blood", that is an offering of Himself but not in a bloody manner, that he will fulfill the next day during good Friday, on the cross when his body will be broken and when His blood will be poured out. We must see the connection between that Maundy Thursday and the Good Friday.

When Good Friday comes, We dont have a mass but we have what we called the Veneration of the Cross. Why? Because during the early times the cross symbolized defeat and too much punishment, but Christ went through that, not because of anything else but because He can accept anything for you and for me.

That is why on the day of Good Friday, we kiss the cross and not only we kiss the cross, on that day all catholics kneel and genuflect before the cross to say "Lord this is the symbol of your unconquerable love for us" it is also the symbol of the victory of love. The cross becomes not a symbol of defeat but a symbol of unconquerable Love.

And on the evening of Saturday,  we will be told, He conquers not only darkness, He conquers not only sin, He conquers even death.



Have a blessed and meaningful Lent,

Ash

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a repost from last year's entry.

Love, Lover and the Beloved

Pag-Ibig

Anu bang mayroon sa salitang yan na halos lahat ata ay may kanya kanyang interpretasyon. Salita na bumubuhay sa inaantok na diwa kapag napaguusapan. "Pag-ibig" anu bang kahulugan mo?

Maraming klase ng sagot ang mkukha ko kung mgtatanong ako sa mga tao, lalo na ngayon magvvalentines. Ang panahon na kung saan prang halos lahat nghahanap ng partner at ung mga wala, pra bang napakalungkot kapag sumasapit ang araw na iyan. Nababasa ko nga na may nagsasabi pa na "sana mawala na sa kalendaryo ang Feb. 14". Naisip ko, Bakit? kapag ba single ka sa araw na iyan wala ka ng karapatang sumaya? At bakit sa tuwing ipinagdiriwang ang isang okasyon na maykinalaman sa pag-ibig, para bang hindi kumpleto kapag walang partner. Ang pag-ibig ba ay para lang sa magpartner?

Alam natin ang sagot, pero hindi natin ito pinapansin dahil nadadala tayo sa nakikita natin sa mundo. Mundo na hinahaluan ng komersyalismo ang bawat okasyon na halos alisin na ang tunay na diwa ng isang pagdiriwang.

At kung ganyan lng ang tingin natin sa pag-ibig, malamang hindi natin alam ang talagang ibig sabihin nito.

Hindi ako eksperto sa bagay na yan pero hindi ganyan kababaw ang tingin ko sa pag-ibig.
Marahil narinig na nating lahat na ang "Diyos ay Pag-ibig (1Jn. 4:8)". At mula dyan makikita natin kung ano ba talaga ang pag-ibig. Anu ba ang ipinakita sa atin ng Diyos upang sabihing siya pag-ibig?

Ngayong Pebrero, ating ipagdiriwang ang Araw ng mga Puso at sa buwan ding ito ating sisimulan ang panahon ng kwaresma na sisimulan sa pagdiriwang ng Miyerkules ng abo. Tunay nga na ang buwan na ito ay buwan ng pag-ibig. Nasabi ko ito dahil sa panahong iyan natin mas maiintindihan natin ano ba talaga ang pag-ibig.

Sabi ng isang manunulat, "the nature of the gift defines the LOVE".
Kung kayo ay may karelasyon o asawa, wag kayong msyadong maimpress kung ibinibigay sa inyo ng partner niyo ay puro pera, alahas at kung anu-anung regalo, dahil sa ibinibigay nila sa inyo makikita niyo kung mayroon ba talagang pag-ibig. Baka kaya ka binibigyan ng pera ay iniisip maluho ka at jan ka naman sasaya, o baka iniisip materialistic ka edi bibigyan ka nga ng mga regalo.
Pero kapag ang ibinigay ay ang kanyang buong sarili at buhay, malamang pag-ibig na yan.

Kung titignan natin ang Diyos, ano ba ang regalo niya sa atin? Hindi pera, hindi alahas, ang ibinigay niya ay ang kanyang Bugtong na Anak, ang kanyang sarili. And by the nature of the gift, the gift of the only Son,we know the nature of the love, this is the greatest Love of all. Love is in the giving and by the nature of the gift, if the gift is really that precious because "it is My Son", then there must be overflowing love.

Love is total giving for the life of the beloved.

Ganyan ang pag-ibig, kahit alam mo na wala ka namang aasahan at wala ka namang mapapala, patuloy ka paring magmamahal at magbibigay para sa iyong minamahal. Wala nmang makukuha ang Diyos sa pagaalay niya ng buhay eh, It is not about God gaining something, it is God loosing everything so that we may have life. Mabuhay lang tayo.

Kapag tumingin tayo sa krus, huwag lng sana nating makita ang kanyang kamatayan, makita sana natin ang pag-ibig. Pag-ibig na kayang gawin ang lahat para sa minamahal. Tandaan natin na hindi naman kinuha sa kanya ang kanyang buhay, it is given as a gift, it is given as an act of LOVE.

Kaya sa mga walang partner ngayong valentines, we all know where Love can be found. We know that there is a love so pure, this is the Love that is lifted up on the cross.
Behold the cross of Christ.
Behold love at its nakedness, at its deepest.
Behold love at its purest.

Behold the greatest lover of all, Jesus.




May you have a life full of love,

Ash