Jesus
said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order
that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your
heavenly Father.
When you
give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their
reward. But when you give alms, do not
let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may
be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
When you
pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the
synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their
reward. But when you pray, go to your
inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay
you.
When you
fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be
fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have
received their reward. But when you
fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be
fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you." (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)
A few weeks
ago, as I was praying my daily rosary and meditating on the life of Christ
through the Mysteries of the prayer, I was drawn to how many times I focused on
the directional words “up”, “down”, “high”, “low”, and words like “drop(ped)”,
“leapt”, “upon”, “below”, “descent”, and others. As we are now in Lent, I felt this was the
Holy Spirit’s inspiration for me to engage in prayer (adding an extra daily rosary),
fasting (giving up hours of social media mindlessness, especially viewing
videos) and almsgiving (showing others a way to Christ through meditation) for
this year’s Lent.
My theme for
this endeavor will be “Rosary Meditations:
The ups, downs, highs and lows”.
I hope that by Good Friday or Easter Sunday I will have introduced my
favorite prayer through my personal experiences and thoughts and convince some
of you of the power of the rosary.
There are
twenty “Mysteries” of the rosary—5 ‘Joyful’, 5 ‘Luminous’, 5 ‘Sorrowful’, and 5
‘Glorious’. I will be posting my
meditations in this order, since this is the order which most accurately
reflects the life of Christ chronologically.
Get
ready! Over the next six weeks or so, I
anticipate a roller coaster of emotions and reflections about the ups, the
downs, the highs and the lows in the journey that is the rosary! (See what I did there?)
Let’s have a ‘happy’ Lent!
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