Lent...

Lent is here...  I'm not sure why my first reaction is always a sigh.  You probably could hear me sigh as you read this. :)  I guess it's because I'm weak and comfortable and I'm not very good at sacrificing joyfully :}  But I'm going to try to do better this Lent at offering up my little sacrifices.  I truly believe there is so much merit in sacrificing and fasting--Jesus himself says so in Scripture, and countless saints have practiced and echoed that truth.  Perhaps one thing that will make fasting and sacrificing some small simple comforts is to focus on offering those sacrifices for a special intention.  So this Lent, I'm going to offer up my suffering (however small and pathetic it may be each day) for clear guidance from the Holy Spirit to help my husband and I make some big decisions that are weighing heavily upon us.  To help me do just that, I stumbled upon an awesome Prayer to the Holy Spirit, written by a very holy Cardinal, that I am going to pray and meditate on each day during Lent.  According to Cardinal Mercier, this prayer is "the secret of sanctity and happiness."  WOW!  Well worth a try, I'd say!  I'd love more sanctity and happiness.  Here is the prayer and some background information about Cardinal Mercier if you are interested in more sanctity and happiness too: 


Cardinal Mercier, a Belgian lived from 1851-1926, and was ordained in 1874 and eight years later became professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain, where, under the auspices of Pope Leo XIII, he organized an institute for the study of the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was instrumental in in the 20th-century revival of interest in Thomistic scholasticism. He was made archbishop of Malines in 1906 and Cardinal a year later. Cardinal Mercier worked to secure greater cooperation between the Catholic clergy and the laity and to promote social well-being. In World War I, Cardinal Mercier became the spokesman of Belgian opposition to the German occupation, for which the Germans placed him under house arrest.

"I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness. Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself.

Then in the sanctity of your Baptized soul, [which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit] speak to that Divine Spirit, saying to Him:

Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul. I adore Thee.
Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.
Tell me what I should do . . . give me Thy orders.
I promise to submit myself to all that Thou desireth of me
and to accept all that Thou doth permit to happen to me.
Let me only know Thy will.

If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely and full of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it and you will arrive at the gates of Paradise, laden with merit.

This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity."

~Joseph Cardinal Mercier