There are ever so many children all over the world who silently wait that they may be clothed well. The season of Lent is an invitation to check on our Christian love. We have opportunities in our neighbourhood to do this. It is enough just to open the eyes of our heart, and the reality is there inviting us to get involved. Shall we...?

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The Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments It seems that every step to Calvary brought You fresh humiliation, my Jesus. How Your sensitive nature recoiled at being stripped before a crowd of people. You desired to leave this life as You entered it - completely detached from all the comforts of this world. You want me to know without a doubt that you loved me with an unselfish love. Your love for me caused You nothing but pain and sorrow. You gave everything and received nothing in return. Why do I find it so hard to be detached?In your loving mind, dear Jesus, did You look up to the Father as You stood there on that windy hill, shivering from cold and shame and trembling from fear, and ask Him to have mercy on those who would violate their purity and make love a mockery? Did you ask forgiveness for those whose greed would make them lie, cheat and steal for a few pieces of cold silver?Forgive us all, dear Jesus. Look upon the world with pity, for mankind has lost its way and the principles of this world make lust a fun game and luxury a necessity. Detachment has become merely another hardship of the poor and obedience the fault of the weak. Have mercy on us and grant the people of this day the courage to see and know themselves and the light to change.Amen http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/stat10.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Experience of Giving-up REFLECTION : THROUGH GIVING UP MY PIPE by Fr Peter Clarke, O.P. - Me give up my faithful friend of fifty years and more! Unthinkable! But this is what I’ve done. I’ve given up smoking my beloved pipe! The friend that brought me so much joy, was there to comfort me when times were bleak, and then came to my rescue when I was in need of inspiration. Let me now tell you how we met. When I started that was socially acceptable, and women even said they liked a man who smoked a pipe. That was good for my morale! And there was no health-scare about the effect on the smoker himself, and certainly not on any one who happened to inhale the clouds of smoke he was puffing out. But then, with the advance of medical research it was realised that smoking did enormous harm to the health, not only of the smoker, but also of those around him. I cannot claim that I made a heroic struggle, a powerful act of will, in giving up my pipe. In fact I’d made previous attempts and had dismally failed. There was the occasion when I’d thrown my pipes and tobacco into the incinerator, only to rush out and re-equip myself at the tea interval of a Test Match in which England was being thrashed. Weak old me needed the comfort of my pipe! But what has now forced me to give up smoking was my ending up in hospital with viral pneumonia. Afterwards I learnt that over the years I’d developed chronic emphysema. What had been a comfort and joy had seriously damaged my health and had caused me great distress in hospital. So really the decision to stop smoking was easy.And there’s a positive side to what had been the sacrifice of a good and comforting friend –my pipe. My sense of taste improved. And that, I realised is why expert wine tasters don’t smoke. Nor, for that matter, do they eat pickled onions or a strong curry while drinking a good wine. Instead they prefer to cultivate a sensitive palate by foregoing the joys of strongly flavoured food –or a pipe.These musing about the way we can effect the sensitivity of our palates got me to thinking about how we can influence our taste for the things of God –for better or for worse. This can seriously alter our spiritual well-being or health.For example, we can easily be led astray by keeping bad company. Reading unsavoury books or looking at similar material on the TV or Internet may be fascinating and exciting. But this can lead us to developing a taste for this kind of thing. If so, it’s likely that our palate will become jaded for the things of God. The same will be true if we become preoccupied with materialism or obsessed with sensual pleasures. Our heart will be where we think our treasure is to be found. And gradually our palates –our minds –will become coarsened.But if we avoid such influences and seek only what is wholesome the Holy Spirit will help us gradually to develop a taste for divine things. We will learn to savour them and enjoy them. As I’ve found with giving up my pipe the sacrifice was worthwhile. My palate has become more sensitive and my health has improved. So too, it’s worthwhile giving up harmful delights if that helps me to savour the infinitely greater joy of what God has to offer. That’s nothing less than himself. If you doubt it, listen to the psalmist who urges us, "O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him," [Ps. 34:8]. Just as giving up my pipe has helped me to have a better appreciation of food and drink, so, too, I must try to develop my taste for the things of God by being more discriminating in what I look at. That must be essential to my way of meeting God. A good Lenten resolution for all of us! - http://mywaygodsway.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ vmalpan@gmail.com