Lenten Watchfires – Keeping Our Gaze on the Cross
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Lenten Watchfires is a Lenten series based on the Beatitudes and the lives of the saints following the delightful picture book Rejoice and Be Glad! If you missed the previous installments you can find them here:
Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Peter, Saint Juan Diego, Saint Benedict, Saint Faustina, Saint Frances of Rome and Saint Dulce Lopes Pontes
Blessed Holy Week! Can you believe that it is Holy Week already? Our Lenten journey is coming to an end in the glory of the Resurrection. How is your watchfire burning? Is it gathering strength and ready to burn bright on Easter Sunday? We will travel this last week with Christ himself, as is fitting.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is kingdom of Heaven
In Rejoice and Be Glad! We are encouraged to turn to Christ himself as an example for this Beatitude. It encompasses all the other Beatitudes and shines forth as a beacon on a hill. There is no man more righteous than Christ himself, after all He is God incarnate. If we look at what we have learned in the last several weeks, it all leads to righteousness and leading a virtuous life that leads us always closer to Christ.
What is righteousness?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, righteousness is: “acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin.” There we have it, a perfect definition of Christ and an ideal we should all aspire to. We can, without being sinless, act in accord with divine and moral laws by forming our conscience, as we have seen while journeying with Saint Juan Diego. And then by acting on this knowledge as we have seen with each Beatitude and the life of each saint we have encountered in the last 6 weeks. The Beatitudes lead us to righteousness.
Holy Week
Holy Week is such an intense week!It is filled with dread and joyful anticipation at the same time. It is a strange week full of waiting and eagerness. We will be following the road map on pages 24-25 of All About Lent and Holy Week by Katherine Bogner, illustrated by Shari Van Vranken as well as the subsequent pages throughout Holy week and especially during the Triduum. This year will be simple, in previous years I have, sometimes, overcomplicated things, lol. We have a sweet felt panel that displays each scene for each day of the Triduum and it will most likely be the last year that my youngest will be interested in it, so we will pull that out for sure and otherwise just live the liturgies to the best of our abilities. Sometimes simple is better.
The blog will remain quiet during Holy Week, but I will see you on the other side!
I am praying for you,
Love,
Mattie
