APRIL ASPIRATIONS

April points to Spring.

Lent, another name for Spring, also slips into April.

Warmer weather is on the horizon.

Summer is getting closer.

Crocuses may die back to allow Tulips and Jonquils to take over the garden.  

A pop of color cuts through winter gray.

Hope springs forth.

We breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, perhaps, we have seen the last of the snow storms.

This may not always be the case but, for some who live up north, the option of sleet or snow may still be possible.

As we walk through two more weeks of Lent and enter Holy Week, it’s good to reflect on wise words from Scripture and the easy church fathers and mothers.

April 1  All Fools Day    It’s good to be a ‘fool’ for Christ.  [Some historians believe the April Fools' customs began in France, although no one knows for sure.  It may stem from a calendar change in 16th century France -- the moving of New Year's Day from April 1 to January 1 when the Gregorian calendar was adopted.People who continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1st rather than the new date of January 1st were referred to as "April fools" and others played tricks on them.]

“Realize it, my brethren; every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent

into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also.”   John Henry Newman

4-2  “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and

revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.”  Ephesians 1:17-19

4-3  “It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but to actually be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name.”  Ignatius of Antioch

4-4  “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 John 1:9

4-5  “He does not come down from Heaven each day to

stay in the gold ciborium. He comes down to find another Heaven He cherishes infinitely more than the first, the Heaven of our souls, made in His image, living temples of the Most Blessed Trinity!”   Therese of Lisieux, Meditations with the Little Flower 

4-6  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Galatians 2:19-20

4-7 Fifth Sunday of Lent   

"Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight;

rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker. Then, having once let it be seen that it was truly dead, He did not allow that temple of His body to linger long, but forthwith on the third day raised it up, impassible and incorruptible, the pledge and token of His victory. “    Athanasius of Alexandria

4-8  "Ah, my Lord God! You made the heavens and the earth with your great power and your outstretched arm; nothing is too difficult for you. ... Great and mighty God, whose name is Lord of hosts, great in counsel, mighty in deed, whose eyes are fixed on all the ways of mortals,

giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds.”    Jeremiah 32:17-19

4-9  “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”    Teresa of Avila

4-10  “God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.”   Habakkuk 3:19

4-11 “And let me make it quite clear that when Christians

say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being ‘in Christ’ or of Christ being ‘in them’, this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. 
They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts—that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. 
It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution—a biological or super-

biological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.”  C. S. Lewis   Mere Christianity

4-12  “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”   Matthew 10:27-28

4-13  As Eve believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other effaced by believing."   Tertullian

4-14  Palm Sunday:  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of

God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.  
Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:5-11

4-15  Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha

served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  John 12:1-3

4-16  "I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus—one to one—you and Jesus alone. 

We may spend time in the chapel—but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? 

Do you really know the living Jesus—not from books but from being with Him in your heart? 

Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you? 

Ask for the grace; He is longing to give it. 

Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying 'I Thirst' in the hearts of the poor. 

Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person—not just the idea."

Mother Teresa

4-17   O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ... For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.   Romans 9:33,36

4-18 Maundy Thursday.  “Maundy” comes from the Latin, man-da-tum or commandment.  Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as I have loved you.” John 13:34

”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and

with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Deuteronomy 6:5-9

4-19  Good Friday is heart wrenching as we walk with Jesus to the Cross.  The “Good” that comes from this day is Jesus’ shed blood on the Cross. He died so that we who believe in Him will not feel the sting of death but have eternal, resurrected life with Him.  

 “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and

supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and He was heard because of his reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered; and having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  Hebrews 5:7-9

4-20  On Holy Saturday the Church mourns in prayer and fasting, meditating on Christ's Passion and Death. There is no Mass during the day as Jesus is still in the tomb. On this day Jesus descended triumphantly into Hades (called the "harrowing of hell") and brought salvation to the righteous souls held captive there who awaited their promised Messiah, as recited in the Apostle's Creed. On the night of Holy Saturday the Church celebrates the Vigil of Easter Sunday, the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the tomb, the traditional time when the Sacraments of Initiation are given to new members of the Church.  morningoffering.com       

"Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”   Hebrews 12:3

4-21  First Sunday of Easter       Hallelujah, 
Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed!   Hallelujah!

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.   Book of Common Prayer    p. 222

4-22   "Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand

are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.”   1 Chronicles 29:11-13

4-23  "Let anger be guarded against. But if it cannot be averted, let it be kept within bounds. For indignation is a terrible incentive to sin. It disorders the mind to such an extent as to leave no room for reason. The first thing, therefore, to aim at, if possible, is to make tranquility of character our natural disposition by constant practice, by desire for better things, by fixed determination.”         St. Ambrose 

4-24  "The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.”  Psalm 121:5-8

4-25  “No one who follows Me will ever walk in darkness” (Jn 8:12). These words of our Lord counsel all to walk in His footsteps. 

If you want to see clearly and avoid blindness of heart, it is His virtues you must imitate. 

Make it your aim to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ. Christ's teachings surpasses that of all the Saints. 

But to find this spiritual nourishment you must seek to have the Spirit of Christ. 

It is because we lack this Spirit that so often we listen to the Gospel without really hearing it. 

Those who fully understand Christ's words must labor to make their lives conform to His.” 

Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ.

4-26   “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the

light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.”   Luke 12:2-3

4-27  "My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5

4-28  Second Sunday after Easter       “The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire. My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”  Isaiah 26:7-9

4-29  "Everything that exists is a gift from God. Yet oftentimes we look to the things and creatures created by God for a satisfaction and fulfillment that only God Himself can provide. When the soul wraps itself around the things and the people of this world, looking for satisfaction or fulfillment that only God can give, it produces a distortion in itself, and in others as well. Many

spiritual writers call the process of unwinding this possessive, self-centered, clinging, and disordered seeking of things and persons ‘detachment’. The goal of the process of detachment is not to stop loving the things and people of this world, but, quite to the contrary, to love them even more truly in God, under the reign of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Things and people become even more beautiful and delightful when we see them in this light. There are almost always painful dimensions to this process of 'letting go' in order to love more, but it's the pain of true healing and liberation. Christian detachment is an important part of the process by which we enter into a realm of great freedom and joy.”  The Fulfillment of All Desire, Ralph Martin.

4-30  “Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I

should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.”   1 Samuel 12:23-24