The Final Christian Battle

It is very easy to view our growth during the season of Lent in the short term. By this point in the Lenten fast we have a good awareness of our own discomfort. Whether or not we chose our disciplines well, at a certain point we very much look forward to the Easter season. As Easter approaches, a healthy way to reflect on this past season is to determine which practices can be carried forward in our spiritual life. We should be evaluating our life of prayer. Have we grown in daily recollection? Are we attending to our life within the community of our parish? Have we prepared to meet the Easter season taking that hope back into our lives? However, although these questions are important, they are primarily focused on short-term growth.

Sacraments, Christian Life, Spiritual FormationCarl SwansonMarch 30, 2024Prayer, death, Lent, healthy spirituality, spiritual growth

Only With Claws

In his Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis tells the story of a young boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb who, through habitual self interest and a careless fixation with a dead dragon’s hoard of gold, becomes a dragon himself. When the dragon-boy encounters the Christ-figure of the novel, the great lion Aslan, Eustace is informed that in order to become ‘un-dragoned,’ he will have to wash off the dragon skin in a nearby well. Eustace sets to work, and begins to scrub layer after layer off of himself, diminishing his dragonish stature until he reaches one final, intractable layer of dragon-skin that scrubbing cannot remove.

Christian Life, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual FormationFr. Hayden ButlerJanuary 13, 2024Narnia, Aslan, c.s. lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, literature, fantasy, dragons, spiritual growth, Christianity, grace

St. Matthew’s Church Blog