With Lent now less that a week away, I want to point out a couple of resources that might help you better celebrate the season.  Over at our sister site, IgnatianSprituality.com you will find Seven Weeks for the Soul – An Online Lent Retreat.  The Scripture-based meditations by Gerry Hughes, S.J. change weekly between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, so you can return once each week for a new chapter in your retreat.

Over at Loyola Press, the incomparable Vinita Hampton Wright will be hosting Days of Deepening Friendship: A Lenten Retreat based this year on materials drawn from The World as It Should Be: Living Authentically in the Here-and-Now Kingdom of God by Gregory F.A. Pierce.

The Lent Resources page at IgnatianSpirituality.com also has shortcuts to Creighton University’s Online Ministries’ Praying Lent and to the Sacred Space Lent Retreat

Our offices on Ashland Avenue in Chicago are in a “good” part of town.  Nevertheless, we are fairly frequently “tagged” —  gang-related and other kinds of graffiti mar various vertical surfaces (despite security guards and surveillance cameras.)  Happily, the city quickly sends out sandblasters to remove the paint.  I loathe this kind of visual polluction, so I’m a little surprised at myself for having developed a minor interest in “faded advertising” and look out for it when I’m out and about in town.

By “faded advertising” I mean those ads that were painted on the walls of buildings but which have aged to the point of being almost impossible to read.  Is it their subtlety as opposed to the brashness of the graffiti that appeals to me?  Who knows.  I think it has to do with being aware of a connection to past generations and of experiencing the city as a living organism.

I thought I was probably a very odd duck in having this interest but, in the age of Google, it takes only a few seconds to discover that there are websites and blogs dedicated to this very topic.  Is there nothing that we can’t now Google?

This is a prayer I love and want to share with you. It is by John J. Morris, S.J. and comes from Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits

Mighty God, Father of all,
Compassionate God, Mother of all,
bless every person I have met,
every face I have seen,
every voice I have heard,
especially those most dear;
bless every city, town and
street that I have known,
bless every sight I have seen,
every sound I have heard,
every object I have touched.
In some mysterious way these
have all fashioned my life;
all that I am,
I have received.

Great God, bless the world.

The “Man for All Seasons” has a wise and useful reflection to share with us [perfectionists]:

If you cannot pluck up bad ideas by the root, if you cannot cure long-standing evils as completely as you would like, you must not therefore abandon the commonwealth.

Do not give up the ship in a storm because you cannot direct the winds. And do not arrogantly force strange ideas on people who you know have their minds set on a different course from yours.

You must strive to influence policy indirectly, handle the situation tactfully, and thus what you cannot turn to good, you may at least make less bad. For it is impossible to make all institutions good unless you make all people good, and that I don’t expect to see for a long time to come.

[Source: Finding God in All Things: a Marquette Prayer Book; Doug Leonhardt, S.J., Editor]

How am I possibly going to limit myself to five taste sensations?  Let’s see:

1. Citron vert [lime] sorbet from Berthillon Glacier on the Ile St. Louis in Paris is life-changing.   There is a reason people line up outside this little shop in all kinds of weather.
2. Miso soup. This salty soya broth with tofu and seaweed is sooooooo good.
3. Te-uchi Yaki Soba.  Hand-rolled buckwheat noodles served cold with dipping sauce.  When you’re done eating, you ask for soba-yuu [the hot water the noodles were cooked in] and drink a broth made by combining it with the rest of the dipping sauce.  I’m drooling as I write…
4. Blue Point Oysters on the half shell served with a pint of [properly poured] Guinness.  Yum Yum.
5. The frothy deliciousness of an ice-cold beer on a hot and muggy day probably can’t be topped. Or can it?

Over to you…

I’ve already dealt with this in a previous post, Aromatic Memories, so here I’ll choose five different smells for which I am grateful:

1. As regular readers of this blog will know, I am a confirmed “tea man” and I only drink coffee a few times a year.  And yet, the smell of ground coffee is totally compelling.  If coffee tasted anywhere near as good as it smells, I’d be Starbucks’ biggest fan.
2. Many years ago, in order to while away a wet afternoon, my parents, sister and I took a tour of the Bushmills Irish Whiskey distillery on the North Antrim coast. At some point they brought us into the warehouse where the whiskey was aging in oak casks.  About 10% of the liquor evaporates during the aging process and this portion is known as “the angels’ share.”  All I know is that I could have stood there until I collapsed.
3. I love the smell of curry, especially Japanese “House” curry.  I was making some recently for myself when another member of the community popped out of his room to find out where the awful stink was coming from.  No accounting for taste, is there?
4. Conscious that this is my second reference to alcohol, I nonetheless want to state that the aroma of calvados [French apple brandy] warming in a balloon glass is glorious beyond words.
5. The sea-weedy ozone aroma of a beach as you walk along it always smells just right.

What aromas are you grateful for today?

Sight and sound were pretty easy to deal with.  I had more difficulty thinking of 5 extraordinary things I’ve touched:

1. My mother’s fur coat.  As a little boy, I was so fond of it that I decided to heat it up for her one night before she went out by placing it in front of the fire in the living room and nearly burnt the house down.  The replacement fur felt good, but not as great as the original.  Boo hoo.
2. A friend lent me his Porsche. [I told you I was a gear-head.]  The feel of the perfectly weighted steering wheel as I slalomed around the hills of around Southern California was unspeakably great.
3. The first time I held my nieces, nephews and — more recently — my gorgeous goddaughter in my arms.  The unalloyed delight.
4. As a kid, I’d sit on my father’s shoulders as we’d walk back from the beach during our summer vacation.  I felt like the king of the world up there.
5. Giving the Eucharist to people at Mass or on sick visits is such an honor that I am always moved by it.  Being able to hand God over to someone…

Any tactile memories for you?

Here are five sounds that have especially gladdened my heart:

1. The BBC World Service in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep.  The Beeb has been my radio companion since I was a boy and the World Service has kept me good company in France, Japan and now in the States.  I’m totally addicted.
2. The throaty roar of a fine sports car.  Especially any 12-cylinder Ferrari.  No, seriously.  I’m a bit of a gear-head.  Intoxicating!
3. Ocean waves smashing themselves against the beach.  Particularly if heard from a bedroom as I’m falling asleep.  Nature’s finest tranquilizer.
4. Hearty laughter – both from adults and children.  The laughter is different, but both kinds fill me with wild joy.
5. Spem in Alium – this 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis is the most sublime music I’ve ever heard.  If the choirs of angels are this good, we’re in for a treat.

Your turn.

I want to spend a week thanking God for all the gifts that I have received through my senses.  Each day this week, I’ll recall a few of the gifts given through the traditional five senses.

Five of the most amazing things I’ve seen:

1. In the Vatican Art Museum many years ago, I wandered into a small chapel that had been designed, built and decorated by Fra Angelico. It was so beautiful that it literally took my breath away
2. The haut-relief on the outside of the Choir enclosure at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  The story of our salvation told in 3-dimensional colored wood and plaster (?)   Simply astounding.
3. I know I should probably say the Grand Canyon or somewhere equally impressive but, for me, Banbas Crown at the most northerly tip of Ireland is what most shouts out the glory of God’s creation.
4. In the Frick Collection in New York City, there is a painting of a suburban 19th Century London scene titled Early Summer Morning, Mortlake Terrace. It is my favorite painting in the world and I make the security guards at the museum nervous because I stand before it for so long each time I visit.
5. The Dai Butsu [Great Outdoor Buddha] at Kamakura, Japan.  I was once fortunate enough to be alone at the statue as snow began falling softly upon it.  Sublime.

Okay, now it’s your turn.  What images make your heart sing with gratitude to God?