Last update Feb 18, 2024

This ever renewing Lenten Reflection is a daily opportunity for life and love over 40 days of preparation time…and other times as well.

How do you start each day?  Blessed Bishop (future) Saint Fulton J Sheen, the great Catholic media apologist of the last century asks the question.  Do you wake up and think/say “Good Morning, God!” or “Good God, it’s morning.  My personal formula is NOT copyrighted or trade marked:  first thing, as your eyes see the spider on the ceiling is to shout:

“It’s a GREAT day to be alive.  Lord, use me as You will”.  After all, the FIRST day you DON’T say those 13 words means you should be in purgatory, for cleanup, or better still, HEAVEN.  Still in the Middle of Eternity.

The 2 minute Examen

“As we prepare for (and continue in) Lent, I want to recommend the habit of making a daily examination of conscience. This is one of the secrets of the saints. They call it the ‘examen.’ It is not difficult to do, it takes two minutes, at the end of every day.” ~Absp Gomez

I believe God loves His people so much, He wants them to be prepared for great things and times… like He did, designing and building His birth announcement millennia ago, roughly 4600 years ago.

Per Fr. Gregory of Ghana, Lent is the longest liturgical period in the Church’s year.  As you may know, 40 is one of those numbers of significance (hat tip Catholic numerologists) that conveys and involves probation, duration and testing, like Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, 40 years of Israeli wandering after departing Eqypt and more.

Take the 40 straight rainy days after Noah, Shem, Japheth and Ham’s 120 years of shipbuilding that killed millions leaving the eight earthly survivors of Noah’s family.

Their cruise ship, called the Ark, actually the first Ark of the Covenants, floated while waiting for dry land to reappear: millions of sinful, rebellious earth dwellers died and God made a covenant with Noah never to destroy the earth again by H2O.

Odd knowledge, King Hussein Obama, speaking at the Exit Glacier about Mt McKinley, claimed soon due to “climate changing”, worldwide water levels would exceed 20, 311 feet above sea level. Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level…two problems no journalist or scientist mentioned is 1) there isn’t enough water on earth to kill everyone, even if all the two polar ice areas melted

2) God will not be mocked, and marked His Eternal promise to Noah, with the FIRST rainbow in the clouds, it will NEVER happen..again. We ‘bitter clingers’ know O King O, sorry is a pseudo political science fool: he just needed to give up his imperial communistic ways, pick up a Bible and read the First Sunday of Lent’s piece on Genesis 9:

1^* God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.

3^b Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.^*5Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.^d

6^* Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being, by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed; For in the image of God have human beings been made.

7Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it. 8^* God said to Noah and to his sons with him 9See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you

10and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark 11I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.^h

12God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:

13ⁱ I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,15I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.^j

16When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth.

17God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.

Sadly, the godless, those that deny God’s design of two sexes/genders, male and female, borrowed or stole the rainbow for their own selfish purposes. God created the rainbow first; it is NOT a sign of transition to a world of 60 genders and killing babies, but of a critical promise by the Eternal God who loves His earthen creatures.

Lenten Prayer Request. Pray, please, this Lenten season for the men and women in government of our Constitutional Republic, like King Hussein O, Gavin and the “big guy” Joe Biden, who are risking their eternities living by man, not God’s, rules.  They NEED prayer as we all do, to turn back to Jesus. WHILE they are alive. We ALL are in need of a savior, even the man who talked about his rosary and Our Lady of the mumbles…  Seriously, pray for their conversion or return to the Catholic teachers of their youth years.

40 Days…

With two distinct 40 day periods of preparation for both Jesus’ birth (Advent) and His Passover, death & resurrection (we know as Lent), we see symbolically these 40 day carve outs are important, just as Noah spent 40 days in the rains, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert praying and being test, and the Israelites, after leaving Egypt circa 1453bc,  spent 40 years of “purification” before the Promised Land entry.

Simply put, our Father leaves concrete evidence of His love for us, His beloved human race and just how proud He is of His Son, Jesus.

Think about it in Realsville: for ALL eternity, the Trinity knew that one of the Persons of the Godhead, the Son of God we call Jesus would step in, in the middle of eternity, to become one of us yet fully God.

Don’t buy the Arian lie: Jesus is both God and man.  Tradition has it, even the bishop of Myra/Licea, St Nicholaus (a favorite of mine) was opposed to this “virus” that manifested at the Council in 325AD, punching Arian’s nose over the spreading lie.

Reflect on WHAT the Trinity has done for us; the Universe was NOT created for the angels or as a Titan erector set: it was created for physical beings, a universe about 553,000,000,000,000,000,000 (sextillion) miles across. US!

Not the way the godless secularists put it: they claim mankind is just an after thought part of mother nature, evolution and politicians.  Hardly. That person you see in the mirror has 10 systems, each incorporating organs and tissues, built from 30 to 50 TRILLION cells.  Each cell a miracle.  The universe was built for mankind, not the other way around.

Any omnipotent God that could make trillions of bugs, billions of stars and planets, millions of plants and animals, one sun, earth and ONE male and ONE female, could easily create, as Father God did 4600 years ago, the world’s largest birth announcement, doubling as a birth reveal. At that time, super brilliant in the noon day sun before the 1303ad earthquake turning it into Loews or Home Depot’s masonry yard yielding previously carved blocks for local Arabian mosques and minarets.

We know the Father is eternally proud, in fact as He spoke above the Jordan River, pleased with His Son; much like as a dad of 11, I am proud of each of my eleven kids, and 22 grandkids spread throughout America. I need to be more, not less, outspoken about this joy for each, whether 20 or 40 years old and the other nine in between.

Funny how the world is still focused on that muddy river Jordan, that today separates the remnant lands of Israel, and the country of Jordan.  No, Hamas are not nice people: they are demoniacs, hell bent on killing off the descendants of God’s chosen people, like they proved one Oct 7th.

Peeps: each child is a gift for LIFE; just as Jesus is a Gift for eternity given freely by His Father. 

Did the Father and Spirit quit loving the Son and punish Him?  No.  Neither should any father or mom end ‘raising’ kids when they hit 6570 days post birth: age 18.  Reflect on that: do I wake up and shout “It’s a GREAT day to be alive; Lord, help me follow your plans and will for my life today”?  Actually, I do. Start the day and then end it with Archbishop Gomez’ 2 minute drill, the Examen.

~~~Lenten Proclamation: as 1 peter 3:15 encourages:  “…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope 16but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

How do we know of the Father’s pleasure?

In the muddy waters of the Jordan, Jesus stood while his cousin John actually baptized Him..the same river that runs between Israel (notice how focused the world is on this 8522 sq. mile area) and the modern Jordan today,

As recorded in inspired works, we are told the Father spoke from above:

“This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased…”

I called it ‘concrete evidence’ above: the prophetic symbolism of the future birth place, and time stamps of significant events in His life and Salvation History, is built into the “Border fire in the middle”, a clue to its common name: Giza Pyramid.  This 3 million multi-ton object is referred to, I believe, in Isaiah 19:19-20:

On that day there shall be an altar to the LORD at the center of Egypt, and a sacred pillar to the LORD near its boundary.

20This will be a sign and witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt, so that when they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and deliver them. 21The LORD shall make himself known to Egypt…”

Those that read my stuff know I have written on this,  positing that Giza is a true Catholic multi-purpose icon still relevant today. Truly, I am not a prophet nor son of a prophet, but I believe Giza is emblematic of a most proud Father and His desire for the children He loves, to know His Son most intimately.  More than words passed down from the ancients or written on papyrus/parchment/printed, He outdid even the Babel Tower contractors, designing and building the world’s largest 3D symbol of Truth.

For this Lenten Reflection, see in part just how incredible that this concrete (well, hard limestone boulders) Monument to the King of kings is, surviving even today four plus millennia later.  Yes, in a dilapidated state, but STILL proof the Father loves the Son and “loaned” Him to us such that we might live forever!!

For the 11 kids Donna painfully born, none of my birth announcements involved 3 million 20-70 ton blocks seamlessly built for God’s purposes:

it seems Father God invented the first “Go Big!”. It has been said NO one can outGod God!

Why shouldn’t He?  He desire(d)s EVERY person on earth to know His Son Who obediently agreed to be born, as it is, 270 miles away, as the crow flies and the Christ angle dictates, from Giza in a town with a mixed lineage:

Look it up: the followers of Muhammad call this city the  “House of Meat”, but for some reason, the Israelites and Jews call it “House of Bread” hundreds, maybe thousands of years before.

The city? Bethlehem, which I call the “House of Bread…of LIFE!”

Yes Giza interestingly, points to Bethlehem. It not only is at the ‘center’ of Egypt, it sits on the exact CENTER OF THE WORLD.

It’s pointer is called the “Christ Angle” (Giza is a true world compass off a measly 3 seconds of arc & the “pointer” is laid out by the internal passageways), and like a laser points 26 degrees to the North north east to that ancient city we know as Jesus’ birth place.  I know, we can’t build million block birth certificates for the kids we bring to the world, co-creators with the eternal God; but He could…and I believe, He did!

Interestingly, this Christ angled vector skirts the Mediterranean (the name means Middle of Earth, ie. from Latin mediterrāneus, from medius (“middle”) + terra (“earth, land”) + -āneus (adjectival suffix).) Sea 270 miles (3x3x3x10) miles as the vector flies over the city of King David’s birth.

Would the proud & loving Eternal  Father do any less?

As infinitely precious, the 2nd person of the Trinity is, the Father desires ALL to know and love Him, no matter how we first discover Him.  Including us, as we prepare this Lent for the bloodless sacrifice (the Bread of Life), the Crucifixion & yes, Resurrection in the Triduum (could it be a Quaduum?).  Daily, 2 minute Examen, of course, at day’s in, awaiting another day to do good works for our neighbors as we worship, daily Mass if we can, too!

God created the Universe to “help” us see the Eternal Truths.  The Birth announcement built 2600 years before Christ’s first coming, at the Center of the World that on the Winter Solstice (Dec 25, traditionally) can be visually seen as an eight (8) sided pyramid, not 4, at both dawn and dusk.  Really? Yes. Eight is an important number.

Why? 8 symbolizes renewal, rebirth, rejuvenation and most importantly, resurrection: it truly  is the number of Jesus, magnified: 888. As you may now, the Scriptures have many numbers interlaced specific to certain purposes: 3 is the Trinity’s number, 3 persons in the singular 1 Godhead. 7 is completeness (7 days in a week etc), 10 perfection, 33 (Jesus’ traditional life span), 8 (music ‘renews’ on the 8th note, just higher harmonically). 17 is known as the number of victory (ironically, 17 steps to the entrance passageway on the North side of Giza.)

How about 153?!  The number of fish Jesus had Peter catch. (1+2+3+4+5…+17 = 153   or 3x3x17 indicating Trinity to the Trinity power x number of victory, 17)  Discussion for another time.

Reflection: God desires ALL to live happily forever; His evidence permeates Creation even today, if only we keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to His calling. Giza, on the Day of Rebirth we call the Spring Equinox, magnifies the birth reveal and becomes the “death cert” as well: at high noon, the world’s largest object has ZERO shadow; when Jesus died on Golgotha that miserable day, the “sun refused to shine” for three hours.

My fellow sojourners: you sing this ditty each Good Friday: “even the sun refused to shine…”   The original (as shown in John, Exodus and Deuteronomy deciphered) day of the Lord’s passing was Friday the 13th day of Abib.  Does “13” matter?

You tell me.  God chose, in 1917, as the WWI of 1914 (a significant number inside Giza too!) wound down, to send Mary to Fatima six times on the 13ths of successive months to three young children. Randomly? NOT God’s way!

Conjecture: God chose the 13ths intentionally, including another “sun refused to act as it was created”, to dance to 70,000 witnesses, on Oct 17, 1917.

Giza, as a time marker, calls out different years in the future. (no, Len’s not wearing aluminum hat wear). Not a time machine but prophecies 4600 years ago of events we only understand in hind sight.  They say, hind sight is 20-20; only God has future sight, my friends of the Cross.

Impossible? Isaiah especially, and throughout other parts of the Bible, have over 600 prophecies of Christ’s coming to earth. The odds this points to one person is astronomical.

Inside Giza, the first “juncture” maps out to 1453bc, the year the Jews were finally set free from Pharoah’s slavery.

33AD, as the descending passage heads up (same 26 degree, 18 minutes, 9.63 seconds) wards toward the Queen and King Chambers. 33AD is at the juncture of three points: the ‘horizontal’ of the Queen’s Chamber, beginning of the Grand (peoples’) Gallery and the ascending passageway

Imagine, God put so much wisdom and design into a pile of stones once whose brilliance maximized (no shadow) at the time circle 33AD Jesus was writhing on the Cross of Salvation.  By the way, IF you stood on Giza before dawn on March 25 (a possible 4 day calendar correction from the seasonal changes around 20-21st of March, June, Sept and December), you would see the sun rise over Bethlehem at dawn. Hmm. God leaves NOTHING to chance.

Why not “prophecies”, both future and lessons on today, in other methods and means.

Built into stone we just introduced.  What about a different material, linen cloth that covers Catholic altars around the world)? In this case, the 1×3 herringbone weave of the Shroud of Jerusalem?   

God effortlessly created the constellations, ie the stars, as salvation history evidence as well. 

Look at the recently discovered mantle of Regina Coeli, the Queen of Heaven, from Dec 12, 1531 ad: the stars match the sky chart over Mexico City, with the constellation Virgo (the Virgin) over Mary’s heart and Leo (of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus the Lion) over the pregnant Virgin’s womb.

God leaves NOTHING to chance.  I believe Visible signs of Catholicism, like the Ashes on Ash Wednesday signifying 40 days of prayer, making the sign of the cross, our almsgiving, fasting and preparation for the Triduum, need not be ignored!

The birth reveal (see the time graphic above) foreshadows the purpose for God becoming man.  Traditionally, March 25th is the day of both Jesus’ conception/birth AND His death.  The Annunciation.

Three Bible books point to this date certain. Giza “amplifies” its Importance with the world’s largest shiny object going dark, like the rest of the earth, at the precise time it usually maximized its “light”

People are at work or lunch at high noon; maybe a siesta…but for 3 hours (didn’t Jesus utter? “It is finished”)

Lenten Reflection:  is this 3 hour of max DARKNESS a prefigurement or foreshadow of the “3 DAYS of total darkness” in our futures?

Charles Spurgeon, in 1886 makes this comment about the miracle of the sun “refusing to shine”:

First, let us view this (3 days of) darkness as A MIRACLE WHICH AMAZES US.  It may seem a trite observation that this darkness was altogether out of the natural course of things. Since the world began was it not heard that at high noon there should be darkness over all the land. It was out of the order of nature altogether. Some deny miracles; and if they also deny God, I will not at this time deal with them. But it is very strange that any one who believes in God should doubt the possibility of miracles.

I was blessed with a wife whose life exuded miracles; yes, this is private revelation, but some of the things that surrounded Donna’s last mass, centered before the altar at Holy Family Cathedral and 1400 participants, cannot be easily explained away. These are/will be laid out in “The Miracles of a Homeschooling Mom’s Short Life” hopefully before I die… Miracles happen EVERY day, so many that we miss seeing them IF we don’t have our Christ lenses on.

Mr. Math Fr. Joe Horn and Fr Spitzer, my fave blind Jesuit physicist, can do a much better job on the emanations, the physics of whether physical matter or window piercing rays, are the true nature of created light.  We hear often as we darken Church doors, that He is ‘God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.’  God uses the lights in the sky, Constellations or grouping of His stars, to continually remind us of parts of salvation history.  OK, History, centered on 0 anno domini or zero AD, in the exact middle of eternity,

Words ARE symbols of Truth, but can be misused as the godless do today in DC.

But another object that has defied evil and survived to today is the Lenten Completion Cloth, carrying scientific proof that the much prophesized Being really DID certify His renewal, rebirth, rejuvenation and RESURRECTION on the 3rd and the 8th (the first Sunday since the Palm celebration in Jerusalem) days.

More and more keeps coming out about the Resurrection Certification Cloth my friends!

Lenten reflection: prepare EVERY day in the 40 days to be a living witness.

  By your witness you first make with burnt ashes as a cross on your forehead each Ash Wednesday (in 2024 Valentine’s day!), others can come to know Christ.

It IS valuable to preach the Gospel by your actions: reaching out and helping the infirm, the homeless, the poor, the incapacitated neighbor etc.  After all, light travels much faster than sound, so others SEE what you do long before they hear your words.

I guarantee: there is NO absence of opportunity to share Christ with others.  Certainly anywhere in the world.  Do great things, as James calls us to, not to “earn” a place in the heavenlies, but as proof of the Love you share. 

Hell wastes none of its few remaining days on earth, but continuously mocks God AND man.  Like HamaSatanist actions prove, there is no bottom to the levels of depravity mankind can impart on other humans, first in hating God’s chosen, the Jews in Israel and dispersed and ALL members of the ONE human race.  But part of the cure is us, no matter what city, state or country:  Do good. Often. NOT for a back slap, but for God’s Glory: AMDG

The Shroud’s image is another timeless Gift (as I believe Giza) to help out Doubting Thomases. A more valuable burial cloth, as a special 1 x 3 (13? Trinity) herringbone (Jesus shared 153 fish that day in 33AD as He re-revealed Himself to His followers) recorded via hyper hyper light energy blasted thru for 1/40 billionth of a second (34 trillion watts?) leaving a Miracle Image behind in the top 1/50th of an inch of the cloth’s fibrils.

It evidences 3D, three dimensionally, the image of a tortured Son of God that I believe after decades of study, it is the True Image…the Veronica if you will, of Jesus’ death and His Resurrection Certification.

It’s proof of the innocence of the miracle worker who spent 3 years in Israel who was chosen, and agreed, to die, INSTEAD of the son of the fathers (Bar’Abbas the murderer) indoctrinated by the Jewish leaders in Pilate’s time to be released.

And the rest, as Paul Harvey says, is the rest of the story.  For us, it is the rest of history or His story, written on paper, in the stars, in Catholic icons like Giza and the Gift of Resurrection…in Mary’s Tilma in 1531 (Giza time line calls out 1521ad, the arrival of Hernan Cortes who destroyed Montezuma’s human sacrifice and 175,000 locals converted to Christ; 10 years later, after Mary appeared in the imagery of the Nahuatl/Aztec lore, 10 million came to be Catholics.  Mary is a POWER house of love, always leading and focusing on her Son, wherever in the world she appears.  Lourdes, Quito, Mexico City, Champion, Fatima.

Lenten reflection: Talk about a foreshadowing of our “today”.  The criminally sane and insane in our nation  practice lawless disorder while the innocent are destroyed by abortionists and roving bands of evil. PRAY 4 America, long may her flag wave as we return, a type of Renaissance, to truth, justice and God’s ways.

We are told NOT to fear: St. Padre Pio’s “Pray Hope Don’t Worry” and Pope Saint John Paul the Great’s “Do not be afraid” are excellent encouragements to think beyond earth’s foibles this season.

Catholic Homeschooling moms & dads who read this, as your Ambassador, I/we are blessed to do great things for others, not locked into for 6-7 hours within 100 sq. foot rooms but the “world’s our stage and opportunity”.   Preach the true Gospel and use words if necessary (hat tip to a follower of Francis d’ Assisi

To all parents: PLEASE remember: YOU are the primary educators of those children God provides you, via male and female covenant marriages.  Fight off error, promote the truth.

You, not the arrogant Tony Thurmond, superintendent of government schools in the tarnished Golden state; nor the infiltrated school boards.  Nor the teacher assistants who push spaying young girls and neutering young men: YOUR children, both in ignorance AND purposefully mocking God’s Perfect Creation of male and female.

YOU! and believe it or not, the secular end of parenting is age 18 or age 21:  this is NOT God’s requirement.  We are called to be a wise guide throughout their lives, even as they have children of their own.

Lenten reflection: EMBRACE the real presence of the Eucharist, daily Mass if you can.

The CCC and Scriptures tell us; logic and natural law screams it, God has symbolized it, emphasizing the place He would first reside on earth, in the Ark of the Covenant of flesh, Mary the Virgin.  But, please, embrace the words of John 6 (hat tip Patrick Madrid’s soliloquy on the first Friday of Lent this year 2024:

Look at the bright image in the untarnished, intact Giza, sitting at the center of the world as Jesus is the Center of the Universe.  As it points, like a laser, at the House of Bread of Life, it is just a symbol in comparison to what it focuses us on 270 miles away skirting the Middle Sea, birth revealing God IS Real AND on earth.    Like manna in the desert, another desert dweller Giza, is an active symbol, ie tool, not the Real Thing, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. So much throughout His Story points to this reality too many doubt today, inside and outside our Church.  Likewise, the bloodless sacrifice that first NeoPassover, the Last Supper continued with our Lord taking the Holy Grail, blessing the wine within and telling His apostles, “This is my Blood. Take and Drink”.

These mere mortals had just heard the words of the “This is My Body…Take and eat” and must have been both confused and obedient, save the son of perdition no longer there.

Giza POINTS to the House of Bread (Beth’Lehem) of Life symbolically as the world’s largest faith tool; we RECEIVE the Bread of Life in the House of the Lord daily. 

Jesus is EMPHATIC, from the 7 Barley loaves and the 2 fish feeding thousands with 12 baskets of leftovers, it is a MIRACLE. But it is REAL: truly His actual Body in the Bread, just as He was revealed to earth’s shepherds and heaven’s angels one Dec 25, the winter solstice, swaddled and loved.  Note our Muslim friends called the City of David, the House of meat, but somehow over much time it is called Bethlehem.  God leaves NOTHING to chance, especially as the Father is soooo proud of His son, the bridegroom for the Church, our Church, the bride.  Next,

Some times our misguided homilists will try and dilute the miracle performed just shy of the Sermon on the Mount.

Yes, it is good to eulogize how man and woman need to help each other with good deeds, to share from our bounty OR want; but don’t DISCOUNT the miracles that doubled as symbolic prophesies of the events one day before Friday the 13th that fated month of Abib/Nisan.

Like manna, Jesus took bread in His hands, blessed it and distributed 7 loaves to thousands.  Similar to what?  At the Consecration in every Mass through the millennia, the priest blesses and breaks the Bread to nurture us.  Giza, manna, ashes on our forehead are all teleological symbols.

The Eucharist is NOT: it IS God, it is Christ.

Your Lenten challenge is to spend (a) Holy Hour(s) at times of adoration or just sitting in front of the Tabernacle. In ancient times, the Tabernacle was much larger (Latin: tabernaculum meaning tent or hut):

According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (Hebrew: מִשְׁכַּן, romanized: miškan, lit. ‘residence, dwelling place’), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (Hebrew: אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, romanized: ʔōhel mōʕēḏ, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instructed at Mount Sinai to construct and transport the tabernacle^[1] with the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness and their subsequent conquest of the Promised Land. After 440 years, Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem superseded it as the dwelling-place of God.

Fr Rocky of Relevant Radio’s teaching on the Tabernacle:

The “Holy of Holies” was the innermost chamber in the Temple of Jerusalem reserved only for the High Priest. Today, in a Catholic church, the “Holy of Holies” is the tabernacle, because inside of it, in a golden vessel covered by a silk veil, is the Holy Eucharist, which is the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who is really, truly and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine.

The Church stipulates that the tabernacle should be clearly visible, noble, beautiful, safe, and secure, so in most churches it is placed in the center of the sanctuary, and can only be opened with a key. Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The Holy Eucharist is the center of absolutely everything.”

Today, like the sacred materials in the Tent of the Congregation of ancient times, it houses Our Lord throughout the world.  Why do the satanists rob Catholic churches of tabernacles?  for the metal outside?  No, for the infinitely valuable contents, the Consecrated Hosts, for their vile practices.

From Wiki:  the Kodesh Hakedashim (Holy of Holies). This area housed the Ark of the Covenant, inside which were the two stone tablets brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses on which were written the Ten Commandments, a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron‘s rod which had budded and borne ripe almonds (Exodus 16:33–34, Numbers 17:1–11, Deuteronomy 10:1–5; Hebrews 9:2–5

Does the Israelis’ Ark of the Covenant still exist today, hidden somewhere in the world?  Time will tell. Small detour, the only object in Giza is NOT a body: it is a stone red granite coffer with the SAME dimensions of the Ark (not Mary nor a big boat) in the King’s Chamber.  The organic Ark of the Covenant now resides in heaven, crowned Regina Coeli, the Queen of Heaven.  Same name my daughter in law was named by her amazing parents two decades ago, as well as a son named Levi who has become a mighty Norbertine Premonstratensian priest, Father Louis.

“The Holy Eucharist is the Center of absolutely everything” spoke our beloved Pope Benedict XVI as Fr Rocky reminds us.  I am also reminded of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, located in the Blessed Sacramento city on the blessed Sacramento River. No one could ignore Jesus IS the exact center of the Church, and our focus.

The Tabernacle in that church, in the diocese of Bishop Soto, is at the Center.  Just as the world’s largest Catholic icon sits at the exact Center of the World pointing to the House of Bread of Life.   ALWAYS remember, God has built “outward signs” that overlay in so many ways to His Eternal Truths.

Attend Mass as often as you can to prepare you for the High Holy Days that overshadowed that of the Jews 2000 years ago.

Lent is important, but a mere 40 days: yet the events of High Holy Week are Eternal, as we believe in the God of the true Passover, His ignoble death one Friday the 13th and His undeniable Resurrection. 

And note that it was NOT an accident that as Jesus died, the Holy of Holies curtain was torn in two forever, no longer separating God from His people.

Recall, the sun went dark, as did the Pillar of Fire that routinely was its brightest at high noon on Friday the 13th in the Hebrew calendar.    Think what those words mean: “the sun refused to shine” for those 3 hours.

We MUST prepare. “People, I want you to live happily forever and your friends and family too! I need you to Witness to living in joy for the rest of Eternity.  As you read this, you are in the middle of forever”.

See how Giza glistened before 1303AD & would be amazingly bright, peaking on the Day of Rebirth at high noon.  The only other MORE brilliant application of light, is that of Christ, I believe, in the 34 trillion watts of Light that blew through Jesus’ burial cloth that amazing Easter morning.  Ask Fr Spitzer: though blind, he sees the Truth of that “bookend” of salvation history, the Resurrection.  Without the Resurrection, all this is folly.  St Paul knew this, as did the first rock, St Peter.  Those apostles all died horrible deaths, save John on Alba, to defend what they SAW, LIVED and LOVED.

But God left all us doubting Thomases various concrete evidences like the Tilma of Mary our mother one December day in 1531; ashes, each Ash Wednesday.  The sign of the Cross when we use our hand, in the Orthodox or Roman traditions; Holy Grail, now resident in Valencia, Spain, that Benedict XVI used at Mass during his time as pope.  And, the much forgotten Giza Birth Reveal/Announcement still the world’s largest effective symbol of the New Covenant.  And, of course, the Shroud of Jerusalem, the City of Peace awaiting Jesus’ 2nd coming, Edessa and today: Turin.  As to this, read Hebrews 11 for a short play by play of amazing church/faith history this Lent.

You might think Len is aluminum hatting, looking like the Arians, masons and non Catholic religions, for baubles and ancient objects, like golden calves, to worship.

Far from reality: that bright 144,000 casing stone covered objects survives today, as it sits at the exact center of the world. It points directly to, the same place the star of the Magi pointed: Bethlehem. House of Bread of Life. As we move through Lent, remind yourself Jesus the Christ IS the Center of the World, not mankind.  In fact, take time for frequent holy hours in your House of Bread  of Life, your local Catholic church.  Make a “pilgrimage” to St Michael’s Abbey.  Pray the Rosary daily or more often. Do great things, not looking for a back pat, but for the AMDG, the Greater Glory of God Almighty

Lenten Reflection: The person you see in the morning in the floor length or bathroom mirror must be careful NOT to think he or she is the center of the universe, or even the world or city.  We can’t be both a son or daughter of God AND a legend in our own minds, and kidding ourselves about our self worth. Yet, always remember, if you were the ONLY person on earth, Jesus would have done the same. For you are precious, formed in the womb and known for all eternity by a loving Godhead that created you “in His/Our Image”.

Lenten Road Trip:  we need to know more about salvation history and just how Jesus suffered for us; yet, as much as He did, He loved us so, enough to leave a concrete object, made of linen, that shows in the Shroud of Turin preserved miraculously for thousands of years.  The Shroud Center of Southern California is at the Santiago Retreat Center in Orange County, in the canyons.  Visit it and be overwhelmed with the Truth.

~~~

Fellow sojourners, I recommend a healthy spiritual exercise each AM: begin the day shouting “It IS a great day to be alive. Lord, use me for Your good purposes.”

End the day with the 2 minute Examen. In between, listen to the Spirit and do good things for others: Include your daily Rosary in between, daily Mass if you could. Do “Good Turns daily” as scouters put it; love your God our God and your neighbor as yourself.  Hints are in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  Fast, pray your way forward.  And “Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry”.   Worry is the tool of the father of lies.

Len

40 yr Catholic homeschooling dad of 11, grandPa of 22; privilege of helping great people as a real estate broker for 35 years, still today. 3 decades in 3 parishes as DRE, FFDir, youth minister until 2012. General lover of life and service.

What say you?  Your comments are welcome!  Trust me, as my eleven kids remind me, I don’t know it all.  But in my imperfection, I strive like you do for the Truth.