3/26/2020 Lenten Luminaries

Posted on Mar 27, 2020 by
[The LORD said to Moses,
“Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’] (Ex 32:7-14)
Moses goes up Mt. Sanai and receives the Ten Commandments from God.  Unfortunately in Moses’s absence even for just a short amount of time the Israelites make their own “god” to worship.  Separated from their religious leader, the people of Israel make and worship an idol they replaced the true God with.
Have we done the same during just this short time of our separation from “ordinary” life and even the ability to attend Holy Mass?  Specifically have we started to build an idol of fear to worship?  Have we fed  the “god” of despair and hopelessness by focusing our attention solely on the negative of our peculiar situation?  Churches are sacred places and attending Mass is a sacred time.  Both these sacred places and sacred times help us to worship the one true God and not succumb to the “god” of fear.   However when these are taken away it can be easy to forget God’s love and protection.
I encourage you today to make your own sacred place and sacred times in your house to help you worship our one true God.  Maybe it’s dedicating to prayer an entire room in your house, or maybe just a corner with pictures of Jesus and saints.  Set specific sacred times aside for prayer with your family.  Establishing my own sacred place and sacred times, has been very helpful for me, and I know it will be for you and your family.  I know this can sound silly and trivial, but making a sacred place and designating sacred times to pray go a long way in helping our worship of the one true God, especially in this time of physical separation from our usual religious practices.