Maybe because of the areas where much attention has been drawn of late, something stood out to me in the collect of this morning\u2019s Ash Wednesday mass.\u00a0 The prayer begins,<\/p>\n
Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The word \u201ccampaign\u201d immediately brought to my mind a political or advertising campaign (which have become almost the same thing these days).\u00a0 The contrast made me smile, as I realized we were entering a season\u00a0of humility and self-denial,\u00a0something more like the opposite of what the secular world tends to mean by campaigning.<\/p>\n
The language that followed suddenly gave the word a more military overtone:<\/p>\n
\u2026so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But again, this is a radically different kind of battle.\u00a0 As St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, \u201cOur struggle is not against flesh and blood.\u201d\u00a0 Like the self-emptying that leads to the cross (see the great Christological hymn of Philippians 2), it is against the forces that tempt us toward the\u00a0dark side of our human condition that self-restraint becomes our weapon of choice.\u00a0 It is the only weapon and the only battle that truly be called holy.\u00a0 May this season of Lent teach us to wield it well.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe because of the areas where much attention has been drawn of late, something stood out to me in the collect of this morning\u2019s Ash Wednesday mass.\u00a0 The prayer begins, Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service\u2026 The word \u201ccampaign\u201d immediately brought to my mind a political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2932,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,665,6,12,127],"tags":[1486],"class_list":["post-30053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-humility-2","category-lent","category-liturgy","category-prayer","tag-ash-wednesday"],"yoast_head":"\n
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