#livinglent2

RISE & PRAY

REFLECTIONS FOR AN AUTHENTIC CATHOLIC LIFE

Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

EASTER BLESSINGS

Dear Friends, This Lent has been such an opportunity for grace. It has been a true joy and blessing to share my faith with you during the weeks of the Lentiest Lent ever. I knew writing "why I love being Catholic" a second time would be challenging for me, but I also knew that it was His will and not mine. I am not one to share the true feelings of my heart, especially to all of Facebook. Being vulnerable and open about something so dear to me is difficult, or at least, it wa

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 46: HOLY SATURDAY & THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER

Today we wait. We are still in darkness; I dare to say the greatest darkness of the Lent and Triduum seasons. As if we haven't already been longing for Christ and His Church during this barren Lent, now, we silently wait for His resurrection. Even now, in the stillness of our hearts, the Lord is working. It may feel that this Saturday, this waiting, will continue for some indefinite period. Not for us, not for Christians who believe in His resurrection promise. While the East

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 45: THE CROSS

Today is Good Friday, the day we celebrate our Lord's Passion and death. Recently, I heard today referred to as Black Friday. It gave me pause. Black? Today is Good; it is indeed far more than Good; it is unbelievable goodness. Today we recall that Jesus, our Lord, our King, our Savior laid down His life for sinful, fallen, and unworthy souls. The Eucharist and the Cross are the biggest stumbling blocks of our faith because they contain the mystery of Jesus' life, a call to l

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 44: HOLY THURSDAY

Today is Holy Thursday. The Triduum, the shortest season of the liturgical year, begins tonight at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. If we focus on these last hours of Christ's life, He is preparing to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. They do not yet understand that He is creating a new Passover that will conquer sin and death. On this night, the Lord will give us the gift of the Eucharist. In Luke, Jesus tells the disciples He has been eager to share the Passover meal

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 43: SPY WEDNESDAY

Today is Spy Wednesday. Today is the day Judas will betray our Lord. Judas will go to the chief priests and offer to deliver Christ to them. They will pay him 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, and in a few days, Judas will betray our Lord with a kiss. My Catholic nerdiness wants to tell you about the OT prefiguring of Joseph being sold by his brother, Juda, and how Joseph goes on to save his brothers by providing wheat (bread). But on this final day before we enter t

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

Holy Week: BONUS EDITION!

Holy Week in the past has brought a few challenges. There was the Holy Week that I totaled my car. The Holy Week, I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery. Some Holy Weeks are quieter, with only a small challenge like a flat tire. This Holy Week was, I thought, already with its own woes of dealing with a pandemic. That was until this morning when Cris decided to hose off the driveway and, in turn, flooded our basement. I am not suggesting that God reins down bad things upo

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 42: HOLY TUESDAY & THE WITHERED FIG TREE

Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." Jesus said to them in reply, "Have faith in God." (Matthew 11:20-22) The fig tree is commonly thought to represent the people of Isreal and their fruitlessness. It is considered a foreshadowing of Jerusalem's fate for failing to receive the teachings of Christ. Dr. Pitre again offers another

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 41: HOLY MONDAY

Day 41? I thought Lent was only 40 days? Well, yeah. I failed to mention; there are 6 Sundays in Lent. If we include Sundays, there are 46 days during the season of Lent. So Day 41 : Today is Holy Monday. Matthew gives an account of two notable events of the day. Jesus curses a fig tree in Bethany and cleanses the temple in Jerusalem. "The next day as they were leaving Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find a

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 40: PALM SUNDAY

Today begins Holy Week, holy by definition, means to set apart. This week is the most sacred time of the liturgical year. What was Jesus doing in His last days? Each day of this final week, Christ's acts are intentional as He fulfills the Old Testament, making all things new. Matthew chapter 21 explains the events that took place, "The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 39: QUARANTINA

Before we begin Holy Week, I'd like to focus on the quarantine. No, I am not talking about the coronavirus quarantine, I am referring to the 40-days of Lent. The word quarantine comes from the Italian word, quarantina, meaning 40. Every Lent is a quarantine, a period of time marked for growth in our spiritual life. A time that we set aside to fast, pray, and give alms, focusing not on material desires but our spiritual needs. This Lent has been unlike anything our generations

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DAY 38: THE BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 38: THE BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Last year, for our honeymoon Cris and I, went to Italy. We visited Florence, Sienna, and Assisi. We saw so many beautiful churches like the Duomo during our visit. It was my second time to be able to visit Assisi, and I was looking forward to showing Cris around the hillside town that I found so charming. Many churches have been part of my spiritual life. I love ICC were I grew up and received my sacraments of initiation. I love St. Theodore, where I spent my first years as a

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 37: BECOME LIKE HIM

Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, giving Himself to us in the appearance of ordinary bread and wine. The Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Savior Jesus Christ. The Eucharist isn't like anything else. Here is how I teach kids about to make their First Communion: What happens if you eat a goldfish cracker? Your body breaks it down, uses it to give you energy, and it becomes part of you. What happens if you consume the body of Christ in th

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 36: SACRED SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION

Scripture and Tradition are necessary for the fullness of Truth. If we place our faith in Scripture alone, we are missing the living Tradition and are not entirely living in the light. "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit." (CCC 81) The Apostles handed down the teachin

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 35: RELICS

Yesterday, I mentioned a third class relic of Bl. Fr. Seelos and included a picture of a first class relic of the same saint. So what is a sacred relic? Sacred relics are items that have a direct relationship with the saints. There are three classes of relics. First class relics are pieces of the body of a saint, a piece of bone, a lock of hair. Second class relics are items that a saint owned, a piece of clothing, or a prayer book. Third class relics are objects that a saint

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 34: BLESSED FR. SEELOS

I was 20-years-old, freshly graduated from college, and had just moved to Cody, Wyoming, to work as a photojournalist at the Cody Enterprise. It was a cold Saturday morning, and I was setting out on an assignment in Worland. Being from Louisiana, I had never heard the words "black ice" uttered until that day. My SUV hit black ice, and in the next moment, my car had flipped end over end and was lying upside down in a ditch. At the same moment, 2000 miles away, my mama was driv

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 33: PASSIONTIDE

Brothers and Sisters, we have entered into Passiontide, the last two weeks of Lent. The tone of the readings becomes more somber; the Church is narrowing Her focus on the Passion and death of our Lord. Many churches will veil crosses and statues for this Fifth Sunday of Lent. While it is an optional practice in Diocese of the United States, many Pastors maintain this custom, which turns our focus to the essential thing at hand, Christ's redemptive work. Passiontide is a seaso

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 32: THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET

Saint Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary documenting the revelations God entrusted to her about His great mercy. During His revelations to St. Faustina, Jesus requested a special prayer and reflection on His Passion each day at three o'clock, the hour of His death on the cross. The message and devotion to Jesus are now known as The Divine Mercy Chaplet. The Lord asks us, through St. Faustina's revelation, to plead for

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 31: FAITH

This morning I got up, exercised, fed the dogs, made coffee, showered, dressed, and walked out to the door to make groceries. (I'm from the south, we make groceries.) I live in the small town of Jackson, Wyoming. The locals here run into each other everywhere we go. The grocery is a place where people visit; it is a loud and joyful place, usually. This morning, few smiled, even less spoke, and the staff was curt in a way I was unaccustomed to experiencing. I fought back the t

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
2 min

DAY 30: BLESSINGS

The most common blessings you might recognize, the blessing before meals, the blessing of animals, the nuptial blessing. But there are blessings most Catholics are less familiar with: Blessings for bees, bedrooms, Christmas trees, farms, bread, cakes, mills, wine, wagons, poultry, salt, animal feed, orchards, pastures, bacon (that totally makes sense because, bacon.) Catholics will bless just about anything. Anything that ministers to the needs of man may also be the object o

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Sarah Beth Dippel

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

DAY 29: THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Today we celebrate Mary's "yes." When the angel, Gabriel, came to Mary and told her that she would be the mother to the Son of God, Mary said yes. What's remarkable to me, she didn't need a detailed plan; she didn't ask, how is this going to work, she didn't question Gabriel about her future. She simply said yes. Mary's obedient Fiat, her yes, merges the divine to the human. Our Lord takes on flesh. Heaven and earth meet

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