Our 4th Day Journey
When God first put it on my heart to begin these weekly letters it was a clear decision to choose the name, 4th Day Letters. In Cursillo and other Christian movements like Cursillo, we refer to the rest of our lives after the 3 day experience as the “4th Day.” If you have not experienced a Cursillo like weekend, I believeyou too are living out your 4th Day. I say this because ever since Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day the world has been living out the 4th day.
Now as we are about to begin our Lenten journey leading us to Easter I can see a correlation between Lent and what we are called to on our 4th Day. On our 4th Day journey, we are challenged to know ourselves better, to know God better and to bring the love of Christ to the world. Similarly, Lent calls us through the practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving to turn away from our self-centeredness and to love God and our neighbor more deeply.
In other words, Cursillo and other Christian movements like it reawaken our baptismal call to be evangelists. As Christians we need to embrace our call from Jesus to make the Father’s love tangible and felt by others. As committed Christians on our 4th Day journey we must strive to not just live the Good News but to in fact become the Good News for others. This is a big and important calling. We are called to not just do a few apostolic actions in our free time after work or at the end of our day, but instead we are called to be apostles 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the rest of our lives.
How can we live out this bold and lofty calling to bring Christ to the world? To start with, weourselves must be firmly rooted in Christ’s love. We must know Him, talk with Him and live a deeper personal relationship with Him. If we do this, His love for us will radiate from us to others as we live out the life He has called us to. We must be a living witness of the Gospel. How are we doing? Lent is a time for reflection and repentance. We can use this Lenten season for a course correction if we come to realize we have not been living out our calling.
Christ sent the apostles out two by two. Cursillo-like movementscall us to live out our lives in small groups. I recognize that not everyone that receives these emails has experienced a Cursillo type 3-Day weekend; however, I want to strongly suggest that everyone reading this can commit to finding or developing a group of committed Christian friends to walk the journey of your Christian lives with. In small group we can be examples and witnesses to others in our groups and they can challenge us and hold us accountable when we need some course correction on the journey.
In the book, “Whom Shall I Send: Discerning the Will of God” by Fr. Frank Salmani we read,“We all know how difficult and awesome thetask is that Jesus has placed before us. It takes a lot of work and dedication. The harvest is plenty. There is plenty of work to do, but laborers are few. The apostolic mission is a big job and cannot be done by a few. The time comes when leaders, whether among the religious or the laity must take a stand and cut through all of the excuses. God’s work has to be done, and if we do not rise to the occasion the work will be left undone. Therefore, let us remember our commission from Jesus: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
So aswe journey through this season of Lent together, lets make time and take time to spend time with God. Lets talk with Him and allow Him to talk with us. Let’s recommit to know Him better and during this Lenten season to know ourselves better. Lets make time to confess our short comings and sinfulness. Lets strive to really become the Good News as we carry the infectious love of our Lord into all that we do.
On a personal note, allow me to share my excitement for my wife’s journey. Yesterday she began her eight day silent Christian retreat. She has made time in her schedule to offer God eight days of silencehere at the beginning of Lent so that He can more fully reveal Himself to her. Please pray for her time at the House of Prayer retreat. To read more about how God speaks to us in silence, click here.
As for me, I amstarting off this Lenten season by following the process laid out by Saint Louis de Montford to totally consecrate myself to Christ. This structured 33 day prayer will conclude on March 25th which is the Feast Day of the Annunciation. To learn more about this total consecration, click here. This spriritual exercise and consecration was recommended by my spiritual director as a way to deepen my relationship to Christ through the intercession of Mary His mother.
These are just two examples of how my wife and I hope to deepen our personal relationships with our Lord and Saviour. We both will offer up our prayers during this Lenten 4th Day journey for all of you. Our prayer is that during this time of Lent that you will make time for God and that He will reveal Himself more fully to you and then together as brothers and sisters and apostles in Christ we can become the Good News in our world.
Please continue to share these emails with others. My hope is that through these letters we are inspired and we deepen our commitment to be a leader for Christ in this hurting world.
Questions:
- Have you marked off time on your schedule each dayfor Jesus from now until Easter?
- Can you commit to reading a new book during Lent that might reveal God’s love to you more clearly?
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