Recovering The Essential

From the pages of the Lenten Magnificat...


Sunday, March 1st:


Fasting can reduce our sense of well being, lower our energy, and make it so that we are able to get less done, or have to suffer more to get it done. How can this be good? Besides all that can and must be said about voluntary sharing in the sufferings of Christ, fasting is also about recovering an awareness of the essential. As a young man I spent two years living without much money in a poor city in a third world country, where I was often sick. I gained something through this poverty. Having been able to do less, it made me more aware of what was truly necessary in life, "Repent, and believe in the gospel." Fortified by his fasting against the human tendency to lose track of the essential, he urgently sets before us the one necessary thing: reconciliation with our merciful Father. Knowing what is essential, we know how to choose and are helped in our freedom. May we accept to join him in that lenten wilderness of fasting, embracing its poverty, to return to the essential.


Reflection based on Mark 1:12-15
Father Vincent Nagle, F.S.C.B.


Father, my mind and heart are barraged with solicitations, Show me what to choose, show me the essential by showing me your Son, who gives me reconciliation with you.


Today's suggested penance: Spend ten minutes reading the Bible.