Today is ASH WEDNESDAY…
Well… AFTER …everyone filled their selves with food and drink…and what the NUNS called “TOM FOOLERY” last night…guess what – – it is now the TIME to repent and FAST for we all have fallen short of what we were taught to do…when we young.
No matter…how old you become…no matter how you try to forget some of the education …you received by the NUNS…all the punishments …the ruler being crossed across the knuckles …half a dozen times or more…those lessons we just had to memorize … study until you knew …what was right to do…even in the middle of the night…the ‘BRAIN’ can not hide… from the truth!
ASH WEDNESDAY was the beginning of the Lent Season…the TIME to learn to do without. And…as I remember as a small girl…in the learning stages of how you do without….here is what the older girls did…and so I just followed what I would watch them do.
We would receive candy or something sweet or even something very nice…but during the TIME the SEASON of not showing how HAPPY you were to receive…You would get for your self a box of some sort…and all these “GOOD” things would be placed carefully in that box…for you to enjoy after EASTER. It was very easy for most of us to be the big saver of “STUFF” – – knowing that someday …you will be able to enjoy… and since everyone…or at least most of the girls were doing the same thing…you were in your own little heaven…to sit around and enjoy and without even having to share.
Years later…after I had heard more of this Lent SEASON…and the real purpose – – we sure were doing everything all wrong. What we should have been doing is to not take that which was offered…just to save ‘it’ for another day. It would have been so much better…if we would have just given these sweet little morsels to some one…someone who may have needed them or at least was not trying to be a first class hypocrite….a first class fake!
When I think about the stuff we did…a hundred years ago… that is what is seems to be to me… NOW… I guess we all thought that our CREATOR…had no idea of all the terrible things we were doing … and at the same TIME…being a first class fake… for which there would be a day of reckoning…sooner or later?
TODAY…. ASH WEDNESDAY… is a beginning to get our act together… thinking about what …we did do and what are we going to do… NOW…to correct the situation??? It would be nice to get this going as soon as possible… since EASTER…will be here March 27th – – and it could put us onto a better plan for living…for the rest of our LIFE! D.V.
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“Ash Wednesday”
Since the 1940s – observing Ash Wednesday and the 40 days leading to the resurrection of Jesus – everything has really changed!
When I was a little girl in a Catholic Orphanage – we did everything by the “BOOK” or else and you can guess the what “else?” During the “Lenten Season” we spent more time in church, since we also had the 40 hour devotions and there was a strict schedule that no one would be able to avoid and no skipping for any reason. Jesus suffered for 40 days in the desert and we needed to get focused on strong disciplines of self – for each of our own “Spiritual Lives” by prayer and meditation of our sinning – resolving to correct and change our lives to live a more pleasing existence to follow Jesus and eventually attain Heaven!
During the “Lenten Season” the first noticeable thing was – the building was “Quite”- no Bells rung as usual – instead “WOODEN CLAPPERS” – making a noticeable sound change for everyone!
“FASTING” – this was done even by the kids! The way a lot of kids did this “FASTING” -was whenever you would receive something in the form of candy and or sweets that were savable – some of the kids would put them in some kind of container or box and just hide them in their locker – so that when “LENT” was over- you had a very nice stash of sweets to indulge in. As a kid , I did that too, but later in life and not while in the Orphanage – I gave that some serious thought! Was that the lesson we were to learn or was the lesson to learn to do without some things in life and the candy or sweets – that we were giving up, as a sacrifice for the “sake of Jesus and Lent “- “where was our sacrifice” – what lessons were we learning? When I think of it now, we were only fooling ourselves. If you are going to do without something as a sacrifice – then do without it. Just say nicely to the giver of the gift, “NO THANK YOU”!
If you are going to make a “SACRIFICE” for the “LOVE OF JESUS” – see to it that you have first – learned to discipline yourself – whereby you are making an acceptable gift to Jesus!
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