At a priest’s diaconal ordination, he makes a promise to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) for the rest of his earthly life. He celebrates his commitment to this beautiful liturgy/prayer of the Church at that time. Praying the Divine Office is a wonderful gift shared by Consecrated Religious, Permanent Deacons and Priests. And often in the Divine Office, there are documents from the Second Vatican Council, shared by the Church. And so, I share portions of the document Gaudium et Spes below, as I often find the words from Vatican II to be prophetic:

"From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, nn. 37-38)

All human activity is to find its purification in the paschal mystery.

Holy Scripture, with which the experience of the ages is in agreement, teaches the human family that human progress, though it is a great blessing for man, brings with it a great temptation. When the scale of values is disturbed and evil becomes mixed with good, individuals and groups consider only their own interests, not those of others.

The result is that the world is not yet a home of true brotherhood, while the increased power of mankind already threatens to destroy the human race itself.

If it is asked how this unhappy state of affairs can be set right, Christians state their belief that all human activity, in daily jeopardy through pride and inordinate self-love, is to find its purification and its perfection in the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Man, redeemed by Christ and made a new creation in the Holy Spirit, can and must love the very things created by God. For he receives them from God, and sees and reveres them as coming from the hand of God.

As he gives thanks for them to his Benefactor, and uses and enjoys them in a spirit of poverty and freedom, he enters into true possession of the world, as one having nothing and possessing all things. For all things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The Word of God, through whom all things were made, himself became man and lived in the world of men. As perfect man he has entered into the history of the world, taking it up into himself and bringing it into unity as its head. He reveals to us that God is love, and at the same time teaches us that the fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of love.

He assures those who have faith in God’s love that the way of love is open to all men, and that the effort to restore universal brotherhood is not in vain. At the same time he warns us that this love is not to be sought after only in great things but also, and above all, in the ordinary circumstances of life.”

Let’s make the ordinary … extraordinary during these Lenten days and avoid the temptation of falling into materialism and self-reliance.

May God bless you all!

Yours in Christ,