Musings of a Scottish Catholic Teuchtar
THE ANCIENT FAITH IN THE HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS
Thursday, 26 February 2009
LORD ACTON:CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
..I think faith implies sincerity, that is a gift that does not dwell in dishonest minds. To be sincere a man must battle with causes of error that beset every mind. He must pour constant streams of electric light into the deep recesses where prejudice dwells and passion, hasty judgements, and willful blindness deem themselves unseen…..to develop and perfect and arm conscience is the greatest achievement of history, and the chief business of every life, and the first agent therein is religion of what resembles religion.
(Lord Acton, letter to Mary Gladstone, March 31, 1883)
FROM:
The Spirit of Lent
by Victor Hoagland, C.P.
Begin with the gospel for Ash Wednesday. Nothing offers better guidance on our lenten journey than the words Jesus spoke to his disciples, read during the liturgy of this day:
“Give alms...Pray to your Father...Fast without a gloomy face...” (Matthew 6: 1-18)
Give... pray... fast.
Almsgiving
Giving alms, Jesus teaches, means making the needs of others our own, especially the needy of our world. They are all around us: children and the old, the sick and the suffering, families and individuals, next-door neighbors and people in lands faraway.
We easily forget them. Rather than just looking out for ourselves — what people say today — see those in need, Jesus says.
Giving will make you live.
And what shall we give? Some time, some of our talent, material resources, perhaps. Almsgiving is not just for the rich. Poor or rich, we all have something to give.
Whatever we give, though, should be something of ourselves, something that costs us. Paradoxically, Jesus also teaches, when we give, we receive some blessing from God in return.
What shall we give to the needy this lent? In deciding, decide generously. After all, before us is the great alms Jesus gave: “He loved us, and gave himself up for us.”
***
AYE
Posted by RICHARD K. MUNRO at 06:06
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