How will you celebrate Lent this year?
From Ash Wednesday Scripture: “… proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation….” (Joel 2:15,16)
Lent is here again! So often we focus on what I must do to grow closer to God. What should I fast from, where should I give more and how might I pray more fervently? This is all good. Yet, maybe this year we need to consider what must we do in our families, our neighborhoods, our Church, our nation. The pandemic, the election and the George Floyd case have revealed that we are a divided people. Yet, as a people, we have all experienced these events.
This Lent let us sacrifice in a way that makes us a more unified family, more unified community, a more unified Church and a more unified nation. This will require sacrifices that open us to a true metanoia, that means in English, a “radical change of heart.” Let us enter this Lent together as a gathered assembly ready to become God’s people, the One Body of Christ.
Let us pray: “O, my Jesus, help me own my own divisive thinking and judgments. Open my heart and my mind to grow more fully as your disciple, united in your body.”
Today’s author, Glenmary Father Steve Pawelk, is codirector of Glenmary’s novitiate program.
Photo courtesy of Martin Jernberg
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