"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Hey everyone, I hope you had a really good Lent and you enjoyed the daily quotations from the Desert Fathers. Starting from tomorrow, the blog will be back to more usual postings.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have forty days of Facebook news to catch up on…
Lent, the traditional season of penance, is drawing to a close. As we enter Holy Week I thought it might be helpful if I shared some of the prayers from the Byzantine Rite. These prayers are prayed by the priest as you stand before the icon of Christ prior to confessing:
God our Savior, through your prophet Nathan You granted the repentant David the forgiveness of his sins. You also accepted Manasseh’s prayer of repentance. In your love now receive your servants here present who repent for the sins they have committed.
O Lord, Who forgive offenses and pass over transgressions, overlook all that they have done. As You have said “I do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his wickedness and live” and, another time, that sins should be forgiven even to “seventy-times-seven.” How incomparable is your goodness and how limitless your mercy; for if You were to take notice of iniquities, who should be able to stand? You are the God of the repentant and we glorify You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever.
Behold my spiritual child, Christ stands here invisibly and receives your confession. Therefore, be not afraid or ashamed and conceal nothing from your confessor, but tell without hesitation all that you have done so you shall have pardon from our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold his holy image is before us and I am but a witness bearing testimony before Him of the things which you have to say, but if you shall conceal anything you shall have the greater sin. Take heed, therefore, lest having come to the Physician, you depart unhealed
Might it be time to go to the Sacrament of Confession?
Thanks to Alexandra for sending me this picture:
Well played Holy Spirit, well played…
There’s some fine commentary going on at the moment in the Catholic Blogosphere concerning our new Pope Francis…
Transcript available here
I’m not really going to add to all this commentary. All I’m going to say is that I’m over the moon that we have a Pope from Latin America and that I’m excited to have a Pope who has had connections with the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. He comes across as welcoming and humble. Thanks Cardinals!
I see white smoke at the Vatican…
…Habemus Papam!
Another quick desert interruption….because the conclave for the election of the next Pope begins tomorrow!
It’s still not too late for you to Adopt a Cardinal to pray for during the election. Here’s mine, Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez from the Dominican Republic:
I was going to post this video after my Lenten desert time was over, but instead I’ve decided to do it now…
The above video is for the song “Intertwined” which was written by Ken Yasinski, sung by Janaya Trudel and produced by Clark Jaman. The MP3 of this song is available for download here.
Upon falling in love with the chorus’ harmonies, I’ve pretty much had this song on a continuous loop for the last few days. Since Lent is a time for renewed dedication to prayer, and this song makes me want to go do a Holy Hour, I figured that I should post it now! Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it… 😉