Lent is such a special time of year, such a beautiful liturgical season. Not that we enjoy mortifying ourselves outright, but I think many of us feel an underlying desire for penance, acknowledgement of our sin, reparation and repentance. Some of us even look forward to Lent, knowing that it is a time of renewal and return to the God of our peace, the God of our true joy. In a way, we want to turn from the counterfeit pleasures of life or whatever sin holds us in bondage, for in the deepest part of of us, we all just want to be with God.
“We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee, for by Thy holy cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.” These words will be forever emblazoned in my memory—the words that accompanied each Station of the Cross prayed in my childhood parish church. There was such profound solemnity about this event, such reverence for Christ as we genuflected at each station. The spiritual implications were beyond my human intellect, but even as a child I knew that God needed to be adored, and it was right and fitting for us to be there. In a sense, I felt truly real. Lent is like that: a return to what is most genuine in our lives, a return to Reality with a capital “R”… a return to our truest selves, in Christ.
May this grace-filled season of Lent be a truly life-changing one for each of us. And may it catapult us all into the Heart of God!
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