Liturgy Live

This week on the podcast we talk about the order of conversion that Abram goes through. How he listened to God and believed him, then made a sacrifice and made a covenant with God. We discuss how people throughout salvation history have required signs before they believed and no matter how many signs they were given they still didn't turn their hearts to God. First turn towards God and believe, then recieve the grace and signs and then live in the virtue that is possible only through God. The transfiguration is also a sign that confuses but strengthens the three disciples. They already believed and now have the strengthening miracle to feed their faith. We talk a lot about discernment and consolation vs desolation. We also talk about facing our suffering from a different perspective changes our feelings towards it.

This week on the podcast we talk about the lenten practice of fasting. Fr Ian is fired up! The whole point of fasting during lent is to get our flesh in line with our spirit, since "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak". To fast from good things for a time especially food allows us to bring the reality of our emotions and discomfort to the surface and actually deal with them. We talk about the 1st reading from Deuteronomy that discusses why and how to make a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and that it is important that these fasts are done also out of thanksgiving, not just penance. In the Gospel we talk about the temptations Jesus faces and how he undoes the sins of Adam and the Israelites by resisting the temptations. We have the ability to be with Christ in our temptations because he himself was tempted.