Glorious Cross March
Subdue the flesh, as far as your health permits, by fasting and abstinence from food and drink (Rule of St. Augustine, 14).
Where is the truly initiated person who has not submitted to personal discipline for taking on adult life? Can anyone imagine the rite of initiation of a young African that does not demand the reversal of the whims of a spoiled childhood? What kind of warrior would he be who does not train his physical and psychological strengths by self-sacrificing exercises? Can anyone be a responsible mother or father who does not deprive self of legitimate desires to see that the children have shoes for school? And for those who are religious in the Church, can it be any different? More is demanded of religious who present themselves as “Brethren of the Cross,” friends of the Crucified, fellow-sufferers with the poor! Their arms need to be trained to stay extended and their hearts pierced. To neglect exercises that put a break on egotistical whims, that build muscles for service and that transform self-seeking into compassion is to delay, even weaken, the arrival of the Kingdom of God. It is to try to do the work of an adult with the toys of children.
Opening the stomach of a crocodile is not the work of a child. (Bashi-Mwenda)
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