First story

We feel a special need to prepare for Lent this year and therefore we must focus on Confession.

The sacrament is the natural way to enter the solemn season and this year Lent follows hard on the heels of the Lourdes Feast Day -- where Our Blessed Mother appeared as the "Immaculate Conception."

Clean. Purified. We are in a time of both personal and societal purification. Note the suffering in our midst and note that a Mass reading the very day (a Sunday) after Lourdes was from Leviticus -- where the way of handling leprosy was laid out and wherein we come to the mystical element.

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants,'" said the reading from Leviticus 13.

Then came the New Testament reading of the day -- describing how a leper came to Jesus and begged to be made clean.

Jesus had done so and does the same with us.

At this time of the year it's especially important for us to search for the leprosy -- for the "scabs" -- in our souls and ask Christ to cleanse them.

As stated in Leviticus, we go to a priest. This we call Confession. Sin wounds the spirit, causes an infection, and during Confession we renounce it, which separates us from it. It isolates the wound. It dresses it. Confession takes humility, which distances us from the enemy.

How do we tell where we need cleansing? How do we locate our dirtiness?

By simply thinking. When we let our thoughts move where they will, they often take us to the location of wounds. Note where that is, where your thoughts hover, and ask Christ to purge it. We see the "scabs" in what we think and in how we feel. We note them in our obsessions.

Is it anger? Is it lust? Is it impatience? Where do your thoughts go more than you would want them to go?

Take note of what you think and then set to work at purging that "scab" and know that the best way to start is through Confession. That cleans our slates and grants us the opportunity from that very point on to avoid such thinking.

Of course, it takes more than that. It takes avoiding repetition of what we have confessed. To do so will liberate you. It may also heal you (or protect you) physically. Did you know that in European culture the sacrament of Confession was known as the "freeing from spirits" -- and that when Christ healed He often first cast negative spirits out, as we have often repeated?

When we have a wound caused by sin or imperfection, by something unclean, the enemy has a legal right to reside there.

We have to make room for God at the same time that we take back our own turf from the devil, and few things help more than Confession.

To not love is a sin, and many sins stem from that -- habits that we usually don't classify as any big deal, but that in fact are a big deal and cause spiritual disease. Go to Confession, and confess the many times and ways you have not loved. This is very important. Confess unlove. Confess negativity. These really cause wounds, for when there is anger or jealousy or criticism, when there is hatred, when there is resentment, when we do not forgive, there is less room for the Spirit.

These shortcomings not only stifle you, but invite in spirits.

Many of our problems are caused by dark forces that have taken root a little at a time and now like weeds have planted their roots and extended their tendrils. Spirits hook into the wounds of sin. The vast majority of Catholics don't even realize when spirits are affecting them.

Get rid of them through the sacrament of the "freeing from spirits"! Purge them by getting rid of "leprosy"! Oh, that our Church would present it as such. During conversion, Confession is often the key step. The same is true of deliverance.

Clear the scabs and don't open any further wounds and feel the liberation of Jesus. The best means? Confession. Love. If you focus on love and admit your faults, your spirit will naturally distance itself from darkness.

2/24/06