For the most part I am not superstitious. Spill salt, I wipe it up. Walk under a ladder nothing to worry about there. The only bad part about breaking a mirror is I have to clean up the mess. Friday the 13 used to be a different story.
I will not say I was sinfull regarding the date. No special preparations to avoid disaster but very very apprehensive all day counting the hours until 12 am on the 14. This March it started out to be the same old story, what disaster would be in the mail box, what household injury awaited me and so on.
I have learned if you have a problem to approach God and the best way is in the daily recitation of my rosary. I will ask questions, look for advice or simply ask for help. You would be amazed how many times answers would appear in the middle of a decade out of no where. This week I approached him with two problems. One was my Lenten resolution. You see I gave up the internet, social media, and T.V. for 3 days a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I am in Twitter, Substack, Facebook, and my own site the Pub. Facebook was the problem. Since I been fasting I started to realize what kind of toxic sewer Facebook is. Temptation for sin everywhere and most of it they push down your throat. The only reason I stayed was for my handful of friends there to keep in touch. Ya in twitter its there but very easy to avoid, if you don’t go looking afor it you probably won’t be bothered with it. Probably the same with substack although I have not been in it that long. I brought all this up before God in my rosary on Tuesday. The answer came somewhere in the first decade of the sorrowful mysteries, the agony in the garden. How appropriate was that! The answer was loud and clear. Get out of Facebook. So I got home, deleted my account and immediately all the temptation for sin it generated was gone………….poof!
Getting back to Friday the 13th. Thursdays rosary I found myself once again bending our Lords ear. I told him what I mentioned earlier about how I would always get nervous when a Friday the 13th came around. I told him the next day is the 13th and I am a little scared. That day (Thursday) in the mail I got a notice to go for emissions tests. I like to get unpleasant tasks over and done with as soon as I can. Always stress if the car flunks and I have to pay for repairs then make the long trek back to the emission testing facility for a recheck. You see this is Illinois where they bend over backwards to inconvenience native born citizens but if your an illegal alien they roll out the red carpet.
Anyway Friday started with a trip to the testing facility, no one in line so got right in. Likable technicial who checked the car over and said I passed with fly colors and not due again until 2028. I got home and sat at the work computer. I came up with a solution for a problem project I had been working on and recommended it to the architect and she loved it. I then was asked to do a snack bar layout for one of my dealer customers. He loved it. Now I am batting 1000. My new copy of the Epoch times was in that days mail box along with 10 lbs of my favorite coffee from the Benedictine monks at abby Roast. The average is now 2000! Then I capped the day off with a Joya Red cigar on the deck and a brown ale thanking the Father for an absolutely wonderful day. Again this was God telling me the 13th is only another day on the calendar.
So far this has been probably one of the best Lents I have ever had. It is actually drawing me closer to God. It used to be my whole purpose of avoiding sin was fear of hell. Now I have to say the primary reason is because I offended God. A father who has been so good to me and I repay him with a slap in the face. I actually get embarrassed now feeling like the spoiled little brat I am when I disobey. Now don’t get me wrong, hell is still in the equation but it now plays second fiddle to offending the Father. Yet another sign of God’s guidance, Canon mentioned this morning that advancing in the faith is when you are sorry for your sins not just for fear of hell but because you offended God. Looks like we are all on the same page.
Even though I have been praying a daily morning rosary for the past 30+ years I am just now starting to realize the valuable weapon the rosary is. Its became my hot line to God, in there I ask questions, ask for help, or just be thankful. Again another fruit from this Lent.
Use the rosary as a white noise to blot out our secular world for a deeper relationship with God. Yes when I first started I was just rattling off prayers like a machine gun. I had to push myself to recite a daily rosary. Its a lot like starting an exercise program. When you start it, you hate it and have to push yourself. Then after a while you can’t start the day without it.