Pray, Fast, and Give Alms This Lent - Ash Wednesday Homily

okay good morning everybody good to be with you today and for this very holy movement up a little bit this very holy season of lent that we commence now you heard in the gospel why we say there are three things we do during lent so the lord talks about them we pray we fast and we give alms so for the next 40 days in preparation for easter we will discipline ourselves spiritually let me just say something simple now about each of those three moves first of all we pray during lent what's prayer john of damascus many many centuries ago to pray is to raise your mind and your heart to god it's beautiful very simple definition but good because look it we spend most of our time our minds and our hearts focused on what the things and people and events of this world and there's nothing wrong with that we live in this world the lord wants us to contribute to it but at least sometime we should very consciously raise our minds and our hearts to god we think about god that we feel god's presence and even more importantly maybe that we speak to god the way we speak to a friend so think of time you spend with a friend maybe especially you know for the guys it might not involve a lot of speech sometimes guys can just you know watch a game together or something but they're they're expressing their friendship that way speak to god just spend time with god that's prayer okay to make it a little more concrete what we're doing right now the catholic church says is the source and summit of the christian life this is the highest form of prayer there is so catholics if you've been staying away from mass on sunday here is a great time lens to come back the best way to pray is to come to mass now maybe if you you come to mass with your family every sunday how about during lent come to daily mass i remember many years ago i was just younger than you guys and my mother had this tradition of of going to mass during lent every day and one year i think i was like i don't know 11 or 12 years old she challenged me and said you want to come with me and i did that one year and honest to god it it changed me at some level i went to mass every day during lunch it was like kind of like a challenge some days i didn't feel like it it was kind of a lot to go every day but i did and it really made a difference in my life something else you can do to pray i don't know if you guys some of you pray the rosary do you know about the rosary prayer maybe your parents or your grandparents pray it if you can find a rosary in your house get it if you don't know how to pray it go online there's all kinds of places that teach you how to pray the rosary the rosary is a great prayer it's a very peaceful contemplative prayer do it here's another one it's called the jesus prayer very prominent by the way in eastern christianity that jesus prayer is this lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner that's the whole prayer but what you do is you pray it over and over and over again just keep repeating it for a minute for five minutes for a half hour or if you're one of the really serious monks in the eastern part of the of the christian world all day so it becomes like part of your breathing lord jesus christ and they say when you say that part of it breathe in and then have mercy on me a sinner breathe out as though you're breathing out your your sins the jesus prayer can be a great way to kind of ground yourself again in prayer but here's the last one i'm going to suggest to you what's called the examination of conscience here's how it works it's very simple at the end of your day so let's say you're you're in bed you're getting ready to go to sleep just replay your day a bit like playing a movie in your mind just go over your day people you met things that happened to you thank god for all the good things so i would hope that maybe tonight before you go to bed you thank god for this mass this chance to be together with all your friends and to celebrate the lord's presence at the same time you ask god forgiveness for the times you were less than loving in that day maybe there was a missed opportunity maybe someone you know crossed your path and you were kind of cruel to them or you were you ignored them and then say lord i i'm sorry for that at the end of the day do the examination of conscience could i challenge everybody how about during lent during these 40 days every night takes it might take you what three minutes five minutes examine your conscience okay prayer next thing we do during lent we fast it's probably what's best known about lent right that we fast from certain things mind you catholics have nothing against the pleasures of the body of food and drink and sex we're not puritans we celebrate those things god gave us our bodies and the pleasures of the body are a good thing what's the problem though the problem is when those desires become so central that they dominate us and if you know this name thomas merton was a great spiritual writer of the last century merton said our bodily desires like for for food and for drink are like little kids so think of parents of little tiny kids who want what they want when they want it right mom give me dad i want i want give me the ice cream i want it now now well you can't indulge the kids and give them whatever they want when they want it right it's not good for them it's not good for you so merton said our bodily desires can be like that they want what they want immediately and we have to discipline them now listen why why so that the deeper hungers of your life might emerge i'm talking here about the hunger for meaning the hunger for purpose the hunger for real value the hunger for friendship the hunger for justice and yes ultimately the hunger for god and it might be difficult at your stage of life to sense this but every one of us has deep down this hunger and longing for god and see if we're dominated by our by our bodily desires all the time we never let that deeper hunger emerge so so during lent we fast now maybe find something you think has become too important to you it's maybe some kind of food some kind of drink smoking i don't know what it is but something where you say you know that has become too dominant in my life so i'm going to fast from that good nothing wrong with that but i make another type of suggestion also everybody can we fast from certain sins that bedevil us let me make a suggestion because i i know it's true here because it's true in every human community i'm talking about the sin of gossip listen to the pope sometimes pope francis is always going on about the danger of gossip what's gossip look we all do it right we're all sinners in this room gossip is talking negatively about someone to another person who can do nothing to help the situation now you see the point i'm making is if something's going wrong there's a legitimate complaint and you bring it to people who have the responsibility and the power to do something constructive about it so let's say there's something that's bugging you in this in this school and you go to your principal and you you bring this issue up that's not gossip gossip is going to your friend who can do nothing about it then all you're doing is spreading negativity around you and then of course your friend picks up on this and then she'll spread it to someone else negatively and before you know it there's poison all over the place am i right fellow sinners i mean any human community i know of schools families parishes cities there's this problem of gossip can i suggest you how about a great thing to fast from for the next 40 days gossip here's a concrete suggestion when you feel the urge you're with some friends and you want to say something negative about somebody stop yourself and say something positive instead try it it ain't easy but try it during lent say for the next 40 days when i feel the temptation did you hear about what she did did you want did you stop yourself and say something positive okay so we pray during lent we fast during lent third thing we give alms during lent that means we give of our substance to help those who are poor i remember years ago i was a professor at the seminary in chicago and we had students from all over the world there including from africa there was a young guy that came from uganda he had never left uganda and he was now in chicago this foreign country he was from a very simple village in uganda and so we arrived at the seminary we had to get him some things and so we brought him to the local grocery store like we don't have gelsons in chicago but like gelsons like the local grocery store right that to us was just like yeah it's the grocery store we walked in with this young guy and he saw aisle after aisle after aisle is stocked with food and supplies you know he said to me he said oh th this must be the like the regional food center for the whole state and i said no man there's actually another one just like it you know a few miles away my point here is look we all know this we are among the most privileged and wealthy people in the world if you look at the whole world we're right near the top everybody in this room we've been given enormous privileges and benefits but we're also everybody we're members of what the church calls the mystical body of christ that means we are connected to every other baptized person in the world and it's not like we're just members of a of a club or a community no no mystical body we're like cells and molecules and organs in the same organism does that make sense that's the church that's the church therefore we who are specially privileged have an obligation to care for those who are not now i know you guys i mean high school students wouldn't have a lot of disposable income but this mentality of um's giving that should fill your minds and fill your hearts here's a couple of simple suggestions do we always have to have the the best clothes or cars or or you know electronic equipment or the iphone or whatever how about settle sometimes for the one that's not quite at the top of the heap and then give that difference to the poor oh there's that shirt or there's that dress or there's that that whatever it is i want to buy do you have to buy the the best most expensive one could you buy the next level down and then give that difference to the poor how about keep a poor box in your house during lent here's how it works put a little box by the door of your house and for the next 40 days every time you leave the house put something in it for the poor and i know quarter a dollar five dollars i don't know what it is but all during lent put something every day when you leave the house in the poor box be aware that there are a lot of people around us who are a lot less privileged than we are and be willing to give alms especially during lent okay so three things i just want to kind of burn these into your into your minds and your hearts three things for the next 40 days pray raise your mind and heart to god fast and may i suggest especially from gossip give alms be mindful of the poor now i'm going to mark you and the other ministers too with these ashes it's one of those beautiful symbols in the life of the church it's a reminder of our mortality right i'm going to say to you as you receive them remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return but it's also a way of saying i'm a catholic and i want the whole world to know and that's it you might feel kind of funny i got this goofy you know ash shape or cross-shaped ash on my forehead but that's the idea is you're telling the whole world here's who i am and here's what i'm dedicated to do for the next 40 days pray fast and give alms

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

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Id: ATkwQhZdXxk

Length: 15min 7sec (907 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022