Last Call, Love, and Lent

Behind these three L words:

Did anyone realize it's the last week of lent (well before Holy Week starts)?

Anyone feeling weak in their noble resolutions they made five weeks ago? Or anyone simply feel in a slump or wishing they lived their lent better.

Me! Me! Me! (I'm raising my hand.)
I was thinking about this for a few days now and by God's grace several things came to mind:

1. There's a parable Christ tells of a master calling servants in the morning, afternoon, and at night, with only an hour left in the day of work. The master pays them all the same wage.
   
2. My three year old son, has every desire to get dressed by him-self these days, but try as hard as he may, he simply needs my help. He can't do it by himself.
   

Ha, this describes how I, with God's grace, am going to make this a good lent in a nutshell.

Last Call: I can still come up to the bar at last call and get a drink. It's the fifth week of lent, the last hour of work, and I can still ask Christ for a day's wages, a tremendous amount of grace for my soul.

Love: I read this in my meditation this morning.
St. Therese of Lisieux in Her Last Conversations:
Look at little children: they never stop breaking things, tearing things, falling down, and they do this even while loving their parents very, very much. When I fall in this way, it makes me realize my nothingness more, and I say to myself: What would I do, and what would I become, if I were to rely on my own strength?
I understand very well why St. Peter fell. Poor Peter, he was relying on himself instead of relying only on God‟s strength. I‟m very sure that if St. Peter had said humbly to Jesus, "Give me the grace, I beg you, to follow you even to death," he would have received it immediately. I‟m very certain that Our Lord didn‟t say any more to his Apostles through his instructions and his physical presence than he says to us through his good inspirations and his grace. He could have said to St. Peter: "Ask me for the strength to accomplish what you want." But no, He didn't because He wanted to show Peter his weakness, and because, before ruling the Church that is filled with sinners, he had to experience for himself what man is able to do without God‟s help.
Before Peter fell, Our Lord had said to him, "And once you are converted, strengthen your brethren." This means: Convince them of the weakness of human strength through your own experience.

Wow. I love Peter.

Dear Peter, thank you for being weak enough to fall because you were relying on your own strength, even with God himself right in front of you. How stupid of you….oh wait – I'm so like you!
I'm like a little kid who knows how much God loves me and yet I still fail. I rely on my own strength. I get nowhere and fall often.

Lent: The whole purpose of lent is MERCY! Second chances, forgiveness, the thief who "stole" heaven because he asked for forgiveness minutes before he died….WE STILL HAVE TIME. HE STILL LOVES US. HE WAITS TO BESTOW MERCY for those who ask.

LET'S GO! For all of us who may be far behind, for those of us who failed, lived lent half hearted, or are saying, "what? How is Easter next week already?"

AMEN to MERCY….Here's to the BEST LENT EVER – Starting this week!

Let us all pray for one another,

Maria