Have a Blessed Lent!

(Found here)

“What will convince the world, and ... what will convince us of the validity of our faith and all the truth she professes is not comfort, not the statement that ‘this will make me happy,’ but the witness of those being happy when they have nothing but their faith. The rich, old, country club preacher saying grace is not much to rally around. But what hope there is in finding out that there is tremendous grace after a day without eating! What affirmation it is to learn that no, we do not believe because we are comfortable, we believe because it is true! To have the grace to praise God in our suffering!

...[The Church] specifically sets aside 40 days for its followers to make their own lives difficult? It’s as if the government mandated that, for the month of May, alarm clocks were to be replaced with getting punched in the face, for the sole purpose that it would make you stronger, and appreciate alarm clocks more. The Church looks at her children and does not say ‘how cute’ — she says ‘shape up.’ ‘Oh you’re rich, happy and full? Well for no other reason than that it will make you stronger, be poor, in pain and hungry.’ ... Where there is no pain, the Church requires it. Run that one over to the humanists, see what they think.”
~Marc Barnes

“Lent is the autumn of the spiritual life during which we gather fruit to keep us going for the rest of the year. Enrich yourselves with these treasures, which nobody can take away from you and which cannot be destroyed. I am accustomed to say that we will not spend Lent well unless we are determined to make the most of it. Let us, therefore, spend this Lent as if it were our last, and we will make it well.”
~St. Francis de Sales