"Sing now in Gladness, gone, is all sadness. Christ the Lord is risen!"
Many the times I have told you that St. Benedict admonishes his monks that their lives are to be a perpetual LENT. And so, we find ourselves in what will be for the vast majority of us, a seemingly interminable Lent.
Denied the Sacraments (but in extremis) you have been called to surrender seemingly everything. With St. Peter you say, “Lord, we have given up everything...what shall be our return?”
You know as well as I that should you embrace these temporary losses with a true spirit of obedience, with hearts open to increasing your belief, that this will serve for the sanctification of souls and, trusting that we will never, ever again take for granted the Life of Sacramental Grace given us by Christ, through His Bride the Church, we will emerge from this scourge allowed by God’s Permissive Will, like Christ from the tomb!
How long O, Lord! How long?
As you prepare to commemorate Christ’s triumph over sin and death, do not lose hope. Pray along with me a prayer that has become my mantra in these dark days...
I will whatever You Will.
I will it because You Will it.
I will it in the way You Will it.
I will it for as long as You Will it.
May God’s Holy Will be done and may it be done unto us as we hope and pray. Blessed Easter and, as always, Benedictions, Fr. Ananias, O.S.B.