It is only the first week
of Lent and it is already clear to me that this year’s 40-day pilgrimage is
going to be different.
Some things, of course, are
not. I am already procrastinating
about making any real changes –and I admit that I am all too willing to find just
the perfect explanation (aka. excuse) to break my resolutions.
Yes, already, after only six days of Lent!
All that aside, it does
feel different.
Perhaps it’s the
convergence of Lent and the Year of
Mercy? Or maybe it is celebrating this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy
within the context of publicity for my new book and my efforts to make known
Father Stanley Rother’s inspiring life? Or
all of the above?
Something is helping me
take notice… and hear… what I often and normally miss.
“…we
pray, O Lord,
that
we may learn to hunger for Christ,
the
true and living Bread,
and
strive to live by every word
which
proceeds from your mouth.”
~ prayer after communion, 1st Sunday of
Lent
My God, I am yours for time and eternity. Teach me
to cast myself entirely into the arms of your loving Providence with a lively,
unlimited confidence in your compassionate, tender pity. Grant, O most merciful
Redeemer, that whatever you ordain or permit may be acceptable to me. Take from
my heart all painful anxiety; let nothing sadden me but sin, nothing delight me
but the hope of coming to the possession of You my God and my all, in your
everlasting kingdom. Amen.
“But
maybe a ‘leap’ isn’t the most appropriate metaphor for this spiritual journey…
we are called to ‘continuing conversion.’ We do not simply just fall deeper and
deeper into our faith after our baptism or initial conversion. We are called to
keep jumping. We talk of that ‘leap of faith,’ but our reality is one of
multiple leaps, every day. Tiny jumps, or steps, even, sometimes just the
distance it takes for our feet to go from the bed to the floor. It is that
forward motion that keeps us going, that keeps saying that today will be
better. Today I will try harder. Today I might fail. But I am still loved.”
~Kerry Weber, reflecting on RCIA
“Rite of Calling the Candidates to Continuing Conversion,”
from her gem of a book,
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