“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain.”
— St. Padre Pio.
As we enter into the second week of Lent, we are probably experiencing the first failures in our Lenten Rule. Before we excuse ourselves by suggesting that we may have bitten off more than we can chew, we should look first at the purpose of the Lenten Rule.
We recall that Our Lord was “tempted” or tested by Satan in the wilderness. Testing reveals a character developed over time by discipline and training. We see this principle at work in athletic competitions. Athletes train for the meet. Where they place is an indication of how well they trained.
In a similar way, Lent is meant to expose our character as it now is. We know what we would like to be, for we are all called to be saints. But we are not yet there because we have not yet sufficiently trained ourselves in the godly disciplines. How much time do we spend in personal reflection, in prayer, in the study of God’s Word? Do we, in fact, actually desire sanctity?
If we are honest with ourselves, we would like to be a little holy, just enough to get us into heaven. But we don’t really want to go overboard, for that might jeopardize the manner of life to which we have become accustomed. We become jesuitical in rationalizing our actions and excuse ourselves when we knowingly fall short of what we should be.
S. Paul, in writing to the Christian community in Thessalonica, champions them to “abound more and more” in their efforts to please God. This is just the opposite of our approach. We want to please Him just enough to get by. But holiness is not an option for Christians. It is God’s will for us. We cannot be faithful in our vocation as Christians and at the same time neglect the work it takes to overcome our self-absorbed and sinful patterns of behavior.
In this Sunday’s Epistle, S. Paul goes on to write about the importance of chastity in the Christian life: For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. The term that he uses is the same that is used in the apostolic decree sent to the Christian communities from the Jerusalem Council in A.D. 49 as recorded by S. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. It means to abstain from all of the various forms of sexual immorality prevalent in the surrounding Roman culture.
We are living in a very similar culture today. What passes as commonplace today differs very little from the pagan culture faced by the early Christians. The problem is that our passions are a very powerful force. Once we allow them to rule the will, they not only dominate our thoughts and actions but the need to satisfy them continues to grow. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy estimates that 12 million Americans are sexually addicted and predict that number will continue to climb with the prevalence of easily-accessed explicit sex.
As members of the Body of Christ, God’s Spirit indwells each of us. As S. Paul continues: God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given until us his holy Spirit. Lent gives us the opportunity to confront our passions and to wrestle them back under the control of the grace-infused will.
As this Sunday’s Collect rightly states: Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul. May this be our prayer throughout Lent and throughout the year.
Yesterday English and I drove down to the Naked Mountain Winery in Fauquier County, where we enjoyed a delicious lasagna lunch. Every Winter the winery serves lasagna, salad, and wine in a most beautiful season. It is a delight to the senses, the palate, the nose, and the eyes. Even in Winter, the surrounding countryside, dotted with grape vines, is beautiful. It was a most relaxing, enjoyable day.
Today I offer the following article by Everett Piper, which stresses the importance of language. Enjoy your Sunday.
Sen. Klobuchar and naked emperors of the left
From justice to compassion, political wordplay masks child trafficking, violence and failed leadership
BY: Everett Knight, The Washington Times (February 22, 2026).
Science fiction author Philip K. Dick once said, “The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.”
Of all the strategies presently used by Democrats and their puppets in the establishment media, the bastardization of words is perhaps the most pernicious.
Take, for example, the words green and gay, change and choice, male and female, moral and immoral, justice and injustice, compassion, care and tolerance. The list goes on and on.
There was a time when all thinking human beings understood that “green” was simply a color and not some political agenda, that “gay” meant happiness and had nothing to do with illicit sex, that some “change” was good and some was bad, that freedom of “choice” did not give you the freedom to choose to kill your youngest children, that men were “male” and women were “female,” and that heterosexual monogamy in marriage was “moral” and everything else was not.
Yes, there was a time when we all understood these things, when we all knew that words meant something; a time where it was self-evident what the definition of “is” is and that changing and manipulating the meaning of words is called something: lying.
There was a time when nearly everyone understood that being exclusive in the name of inclusion was duplicitous, that marching for tolerance while shouting “I can’t tolerate your intolerance” was hypocrisy and that chanting “Love trumps hate” while saying you absolutely “hate those hateful people” was rightly seen as nonsense.
This self-refuting use of words is the left’s most predictable trait today. It drives and underlies everything they say and do. Whether it be taxes, education, domestic policies or international affairs, it seems Democrats can’t open their mouths without contradicting themselves at every turn.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, is the most recent poster child for such self-
deception.
“Minnesota has shown the world how to protect democracy and take care of our neighbors,” she said earlier this month. “We will continue to stand up for justice. … We take care of our own.”
Justice? Care? Decency? Protecting your own? What about justice for the 3,364 undocumented children whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just identified as having been forced into prostitution at the hands of Minnesota’s cartels? How is it “just,” Ms. Klobuchar, for you and thousands of others to stand in the way of these federal officers as they attempt to rescue thousands of little boys and girls from this living hell? Are these children not your “own”? Are they not your “neighbors”?
How about the 400,000 children nationwide who have been trafficked over the past 10 years and are presently suffering a similar fate? Is impeding the efforts of the Trump administration to find them and help them what you would call “decent” and “caring”? How “protected” do you think these girls and boys feel right now?
Then there are the sexual assaults and murders of young women across the country. These include Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was raped and killed while hiking in Maryland, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered while jogging on the University of Georgia campus, Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was abducted, sexually assaulted and strangled to death in Houston, Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old woman with autism who was raped, bound and strangled in Aberdeen, Maryland, and many more.
All these killings took place in the past few years and apparently align with what nearly every Democrat in the country now calls “concern, compassion, decency, caring for their own, and loving their neighbors.”
More than 2,600 years ago, the Prophet Isaiah warned, “Woe unto him who calls darkness light and light darkness, bitter sweet and sweet bitter.” The biblical moral here is simple:
Turning the meaning of words upside down and using them to describe their opposite is always wrong and always brings judgment. It will bring the judgment of men against one another, the judgment of God against men or both.
If we don’t stop drinking this Kool-Aid, if we don’t start pointing out that these would-be emperors have no clothes, if we don’t start calling lies what they truly are, then we may soon find we are controlled by people such as Ms. Klobuchar, who apparently can’t tell the difference between good and evil.
As George Orwell wrote, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 