One experience almost every Catholic adult has to encounter in life is the reaction of others who actually believe that we have been deceived in our religious beliefs and practices. Our faith is considered by some as superstition or wacky control of our emotions by some organized religion. We are believers in the man who preached the word of God. We and join those who believe and practice what John, the evangelist, wrote: This is the Christ.
Lent is a season that affords each of us the opportunity to take our spiritual lives to the gym for stretching (getting out of our comfort zones), weight lifting (coming to know and accept the teachings of the Church) and sweating (working to help those in need).
When we gather in what might be likened to a spiritual gym, our churches, we are joining with our sisters and brothers to strengthen our faith and sense of community, a very important part of any religious practice. In our communal prayer such as Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic Adoration and the Mass, we are proclaiming once again what it is that we believe.
Stay away from exercise or the gym and one principal consequence impacts each person: the muscles lose much of their strength. Stay away from the spiritual gym and we diminish the strength of our faith.
