Lent, the gate to the Three-Fold Way; seeds; links!
The Liturgical Year is a gift; the gift of Christ Himself, as Pius XII calls it. Lent is the great call to repentance.
And if we step back, we realize something so important for knowing what the pattern of life really is. Everything in the universe exhibits this same pattern: the Three-Fold Way.
That is, there is no plateau, no stasis in our earthly existence. We are in a continual cycle of the three stages that characterize it: Purgation, Illumination (or if that word conjures up something weirdly gnostic or arcane, we can think of it as Understanding, Insight, or Wisdom), and Union.
When I was a new Catholic, diving into the works of the spiritual masters, I was so unclear about this three-fold Way and their description of it. The Interior Castle of St. Theresa of Avila stymied me. I see now that it’s because I interpreted it as a once-and-for-all sort of thing, requiring me to discern where I was in its scheme. I thought you were in one of the stages until you went to the next and got to the end, and got a bit paralyzed with trying to figure out where I was and how I would know.
It’s true that there is a moment of conversion where the soul finally puts away its self-seeking orientation and turns definitively to God. Things change after that.
However, the liturgical year helped me understand that after that one tectonic shift, every soul is always experiencing some aspect of this universal pattern all the time.
Even the greatest saint can fall in an instant, however minimal that fall would look to the outside observer, and then the process of purgation (sorrow for sin, repentance, reparation) has to begin again.
Even the worst sinner can have a moment of enlightenment where, having repented, he sees what he must do and why.
Even the most normal, unremarkable Christian, sorry for his sins, leaving behind bad habits, striving daily for virtue, walking diligently with Christ, will have times of being simply united with Him. All this can happen on a daily or even hourly basis, or it can be the matter of a long wait, the seed lying far under the earth.
The Liturgical Year basically offers us opportunities to participate in this Way. A rather crass image would be that it’s like a bus or train that we are grateful to hop on and get to our destination — but the driver or engineer is the Holy Spirit! He knows where He is going! Each season offers each person exactly what is necessary.
So in Lent, the Church so wonderfully says to us, “Oh, you thought things were going fine and maybe you were in union with Him, but now you need to ride the train of sorrow for your part in His crucifixion, and it’s not a comfy train, though you can choose to get on or not.”
That’s not a message we might naturally wish to hear — especially not with the world telling us how great we are and that what we need is more, not less, coddling.
The Illumination, the understanding, the insight of this time can be so fruitful.
And shortly, Church also says to us, “Enough of that! Now it’s time to rejoice! Regardless! Don’t worry! You weren’t going to get more sorrowful than that just now!” Let’s be honest, those of us who have had Lents during which we paid little attention: the Easter time feels hollow without the purgation that precedes it — feasts require fasts, fasts lead to feasts, because God is good!
This time is coming upon us. The mother of the family has a lot of preparation still to do — the hosting grandmother too, so I won’t see you next week!
But I encourage you to take some time as we enter the final period of interior and exterior preparation to turn to your Little Oratory, the prayer place in your home that signifies, that gives a material form of beauty to, your participation in this liturgical Way, the Way that leads the little souls as well as the great ones, to Him.
Children and the elderly, believer and unbeliever are all drawn to it. Isn’t it in keeping with all the other facts of what we know about the Lord that something so practical, so doable and beautiful as well as universal conveys such spiritual meaning?
Yes, I woke up to quite a bit of snow today! Would love to be posting some daffodil pictures! They are out there somewhere, those Spring flowers!
Gardening Corner
Today I will plant some more flower seeds and some more tomatoes, though it seems as though a lot of last year’s seeds did germinate.
The seeds on the right are herbs and are taking their sweet time. I love sweet marjoram to cook with. It’s like a mild thyme and has a delicate flavor. I never see plants of it for sale. It’s starting in there… also summer savory.
A huge tray of lettuce! I have gone out and put such seedlings in the garden by April 12 in the past — they are quite cold-hardy. I’m not super motivated right now I must say!
I left my planting stuff out in my other area and I’ll get to it all today. It’s nice to have a second sink!
bits & piecesHusband and wife are meant to be friends! The strangest thing is the idea that children prevent our friendship, when actually they promote it. I liked John Cuddeback’s way of putting it here.
A good article about Mortimer Adler’s advice to mark up your books so you are really interacting with them: How to Remember Everything You Read
I have actually begun, in the past five years or so, taking notes in my books more than I used to. I differ from Adler in a couple of ways, though. I think it’s a mistake to use pen, though the pencil needs to be sharp. (Go ahead and get a good pencil sharpener! This old-school one for the kids (affiliate link), mounted where they can reach it, and an electric one for you, set up somewhere high (I don’t see the kind I have, but you want one that doesn’t have to be emptied super often.)
It’s a problem when you know the book is one that will be handed down to each child in the homeschool. If it’s a real classic, then each child should probably have his own copy, but that’s not always possible, so prudence is necessary.
I think Adler may have had our generation’s assumption (though he’s actually from the previous generation) that the good books wouldn’t go out of print. This is no longer true, and an important reason to haunt second-hand shops and sales. So there is a sense of preservation necessary.
All that said, it has helped me a lot to be able to consult my previous notes and also running headers that provide a sort of guide to the text when I’m flipping through it, trying to find what I remember. For books that are important to forming my world view, thoughts, and inspirations, marking is essential and a good practice to teach our students.
IVF doesn’t address infertility — it just is about getting a baby in any possible way. It can make one’s fertility worse. This video explains this issue and offers moral and effective alternatives. Conceiving a child outside of the womb should be absolutely forbidden.On reading Scripture in the light of Christ: Tolle, lege: on restoring the heart and hearth through reading.
from the archives
The moral life of the child and how to nurture it (a series)
A few little things to get ready for the Easter Triduum
liturgical living
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