Rending Our Hearts Through Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving

i'm not gonna lie i think i think you're gonna like this one [Music] hey i'm father mark mary with franciscan friars of the renewal and this is ascension presents uh lent is coming in a couple days today we're going to talk about the waters of the jordan the lord's baptism its connection to the desert and then what the church proposes to us for lent this increased time of prayer uh fasting and almsgiving we want to begin by looking and seeing the connection between jesus's baptism and then his journey into the desert in matthew's gospel chapter 3 ends with jesus being baptized right and then the heavens are rent open and the father speaks these words like this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased then chapter 3 ends chapter 4 immediately jesus goes into the desert he's driven into the desert um by the spirit so like let's look at this and let's look at this connection right because it's jesus is baptized for us right he goes into the waters of baptism and we and we kind of say that he makes these baptismal waters holy and and at this moment right uh at the shore uh the father he pulls open the heavens and speaks these words you are my beloved son you are my beloved son in whom i am well please the father reveals himself and speaks and speaks his love for the sun right and then jesus goes into the desert right and equally jesus goes into the desert for us and we can say as he made the waters holy of baptism he makes he makes the desert he makes the sand uh holy for us in his 40 days in the desert he makes our trials and our struggles and all that holy and what i want to say is this is at the waters as the heavens were rent open it's actually going into the desert that our hearts are rent open that our insecurities are open that are our our struggles and our weaknesses are revealed so that like at the jordan the father can speak these words into our lives like you are my beloved son you are my beloved daughter in whom i am well pleased it's actually in the struggles the encountering of our weakness our need of a savior that god can speak even more deeply and more intimately into all of the recesses of our lives our hearts our souls this truth like i am good father and you are my beloved son you are my beloved daughter and i love you and i am pleased in you it's actually in the season of lent by entering into the desert that we're invited to kind of do some of the work which creates the space for these beautiful words to speak even more deeply into all aspects of ourselves what's an example right you're getting fired from your job right and you have to find a new job and and in your job and in this place and in your prayers like okay i know the lord loves me and he's with me and i'm his beloved son i'm his beloved daughter but now like now i go into this wilderness now i go into this desert of insecurity where now i have to like there's this future before me there's this losing of a job uh a need for finding a new job a need for being dependent and growing and trust again in god in this difficult situation in rending kind of our control from our future and rending our our security from us as we follow the lord and we cry out to him and we allow him to be provident in our lives as as we journey with him in this new struggle this new desert like into this aspect of our life again the lord can speak these words like i am good i am father you are beloved i am with you and so it's in these temptations and these trials and these struggles that the spaces created for the lord to speak even more deeply into our hearts this is a terrible image in some ways but it's the only one that i have like if you're trying to like season like a potato or something like that and you want to get like the salt and the butter and all that deep inside of it when you're baking it like you like stab it a bunch with a fork right and the fork creates these pockets these space so that the goodness can sink in even more deeply and in a certain sense in a certain sense not a very analogous sense but in certain sense by going into the desert uh in our lantern practices like we're kind of poking these holes in these different areas of our lives and of our hearts so that the the goodness of our belovedness and his fatherhood can speak even more deeply into our hearts all right so let's now relate this to prayer fasting almsgiving i propose i propose that like when the church invites us to pray and to a deep in prayer uh during lent it's like the lord wants us to do this this holy violence to our schedules like there's a holy violence done to the heavens at the jordan there's a holy violence that's done as jesus goes into the wilderness and and the lord wants us to do to rend our schedule to rend our schedule it's gonna hurt there's gonna be a sacrifice there's gonna be a pain but to create space so that the lord can speak even more deeply into the silence right to step away from the control and the comfort and maybe some of the insecurity that going into kind of quiet might bring with it so that the lord as he says in jose like i'm going to draw her into the desert and speak tenderly to her heart right by by doing this little violence by rending our schedules the lord can speak tenderly to our hearts fasting like fasting there's there's like a holy violence a fasting that we're asked to do against kind of our own our own bodies our own uh desires our own kind of security again that we can find in food by fasting an appropriate amount and we'll qualify that uh before we end it can create space again to be more dependent on the lord to encounter our weakness and to have this experience like lord i can't even give up this little thing for this day lord speak your truth speak your love into my heart here right so so we do this little violence to our bodies we rend kind of our our diet so that the lord can speak tenderly to our hearts right and then almsgiving and almsgiving right is this again it's like this this holy violence to our checkbooks essentially to our kind of selfish approach to life that we've accumulated these things and we want to use them for our own pleasure or our own enjoyment we're going to rend this like we're going to make some sacrifice do a little holy violence in being generous so that in our generosity and in our some of the doing without that comes along with extra giving again the lord can speak tenderly to our hearts you are my beloved son you are my beloved daughter in whom i'm well pleased as jesus goes into the desert like so the jordan the heavens are rent the father speaks this truth as we go into the desert and as we as we rend our our schedules as we as we run kind of our diets and our uh in our our checkbooks this is going to create some of the space so the truth and the goodness of the father's love and our identity can can speak even more deeply into our very lives now one sort of tool for judging how much if you will holy violence to do uh the brothers recently myself and some of our young possums we have this trip where we actually go into the desert uh for three weeks and it's a pretty intense trip and and it's part of this whole spirituality that we're talking about here but our guides kind of have this way of distinguishing clarifying what we're trying to do like they talk about this comfort zone the challenge zone and then the panic or the crisis zone right that's rendering our schedules and our diets and and our checkbooks like we don't want to just be in the comfort zone like we want there to be a little pinch we want there to be this challenge right so we want to enter into this challenge zone but but right without going into this panic or crisis area like so you want to find the sweet spot in particular um when it comes to dealing with giving up food right if it's if it's more than giving up like a particular kind of extra like i'm going to give up soda or alcohol or sweets if it's a specific really cut back on on overall calories i'm really going to encourage you to at the very least speak to one other mature adult to make sure they hear about it ideally it's a trusted priest because again like in that area especially we don't want to go into this the panic or or the crisis area but we do we are still encouraged to enter into into the challenge so my brothers and sisters this is what it's about right we're going into lent not just to do a little sacrifice to check a box we're going into to lent so that again the heavens and our hearts may be rent open so that the father may speak even more deeply and ever and new into our lives you are my beloved son you are my beloved daughter in whom i am well pleased looking forward to making this lenten journey with you more to come on that god bless you all thank you for watching look forward to being with you all again again next week remember we are pilgrims on the series so let's pair guinness poco little by little vamos agar we're gonna make it peace god bless y'all [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 17,085

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, father mike, catholic advice, catholic inspiration, catholic motivation, cfrs, franciscan friars of the renewal, fr. Mark-mary, fr mark mary, father mark-mary, catholic friars, prepare for lent, how to prepare for lent 2022, rend your, rend your heart, rend your heart not your garment, holy violence, prayer fasting guide, prayer fasting and almsgiving, prayer fasting and almsgiving activities, lent 2022 catholic

Id: pJNVxjuV7dM

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 25 2022