Catholic Fire

This week's Catholic Carnival is being hosted by Lyn F. at Organ-ic Chemist. There is a treasure chest of posts there, covering a wide variety of topics, including: Pentecost, Mother's Day, First Communion, Confirmation, book and movie reviews ... you name it, it's in there. Here are a few of my favorites: Christine's post on Planned Parenthood’s tribute to Mother’s Day . Steven's book review of The Shadow of the Bear: A fairy tale retold by Regina Doman. Heidi's post on The Power of Prudence. Sarah's review of Heidi Hess Saxton's Behold Your Mother: Mary Stories and Reflections from a Catholic Convert . There are plenty of other great posts there, so be sure to go there and check out all of them.

The following are notes from a talk given by Fr. Dominique, a few years ago, about the meaning of Lent. I have adapted them very slightly in order to help clarify the meaning in English, as the speaker is French. The content is still the same. Lenten Reflections Lent is a retreat that the Church gives us in order to re-focus on what should be first in our lives. The purpose of Jesus' life was to glorify the Father and Save the world. Today, we are called to rediscover the dignity of being invited to live as the Son. Lent is not first a time of giving up but a time to re-choose to be victim of Christ, the Lamb. It is a time to live the Beatitudes. If sleeping less makes us gloomy, then we should sleep as we normally do. Lent should bring us joy – Christian joy. We become joyful when we live out the sacrifice of Christ in our lives. To re-choose a Christian joy means to embrace the sorrowful mysteries that lead us to the glorious. During the Lenten season, we must refocus on Jesus Ch...