Blessed Ash Wednesday Digital Neighbors, ADD Irregulars, WSN Aficionados, and all you who lurk about at Padre's. In Cath-O-land we enter into this season of preparation for the coming joy of Easter. One of our good beginning guides in this Lenten journey is St. Augustine.

He is often maligned about being too uptight about sex and sensuality. He is the one who really brought the word concupiscence into the Catholic lexicon. The word is useful and should not be dropped because we find it distasteful. It speaks of desires out of order, a lust that while at its core is sexual, is even more fundamentally animalistic and wanting MORE - more food, more drink, more things, more pleasure. MORE for ME.

We don't have to look far to see how excesses have wrecked lives, the obesity crisis in our country reminds us that we have excessive eating accompanied by little exercise. St. Augustine had a particular point to make about sexuality because he reflected upon how is own life was wrecked by it. He knew too well that an unbridled and undisciplined life does not bring satisfaction but only distraction at best. More than likely he may have been a bit too negative about sexuality, but his caution and concern is a better place to journey forth from than from a past filled with emotional and relational wreckage that is difficult to process and understand. Anyway on to St. Augustine and his prayer.

O Lord,
the house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that You may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to You?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.
Guard me, O Holy Spirit, that I myself may always be holy.

— Augustine of Hippo

I have a long way to go in getting my act together, but the Master is patience and His lessons are a great mix of gentleness and obvious prodding. I don't know if you observe Lent or not, but it s a good season to cultivate self-awareness through the exploration of your sins (darker inclinations) as well as counting more of the blessings in your life. I smiled when Augustine asks in the first prayer to be delivered from strange sins. He knew strangeness too much from his own life as well as from the decaying Roman Empire around him. Human stupidity and depravity is a scary dance that the lost and empty can be too easily misled to pursue.

Holiness is not the suppression of human nature but its transformation. It does not look the same for everyone, but there are foundational elements in cultivating a life of holiness. Perhaps this Lent I will give it a go as part of these morning rambles for you my friends. We are all a mixture of the goodness that is loving fashioned by the Luminous and the brokenness that lurks in our recesses of hearts.