Image: UUAA |
I know that for many folks it’s your favorite baseball team that determines the arrival of spring: the beginning of spring training; speculating on this year’s pennant possibilities; and the opening home game.
But in my field of dreams, spring comes when Lent arrives - and Ash Wednesday falls this year on March 9 - just a few days away!
Actually, the word Lent finds its roots in the Old English word lencten which refers to the lengthening of days in the spring. But I realize that not everybody looks forward to Lent - especially those who see Lent only as a season of shadows and sacrifice, of “giving things up. “
To help us understand Lent in terms of the springtime all of us longing for, I invite you to think of Lent in terms of taking a vacation!
Imagine taking a 40 day vacation from some of the things that weigh you down, wear you out and deplete your spirit…
• Imagine taking a vacation from the over-eating and over-drinking that many of us do. Holding back on consuming too much food and drink, and experiencing instead what it means to be hungry, what it means to want to be filled with something good, something healthy, something nourishing for the heart and soul… It’s hard to know our hearts’ real hungers on a full stomach… And imagine the money you might save on a vacation from consuming - and how you might offer that money to reach out and serve those in need…-
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• Imagine taking a vacation from your schedule, your planner. Imagine setting aside an hour or a half hour every day to do some of the things you really like to do, the things that nourish you, the things that bring you peace, the things that feed your soul and spirit…
• Imagine taking a vacation from the sounds, the voices, the music, the media, the background noise that is everywhere around us, often plugged into our ears… Imagine a vacation with moments of quiet, even silence… imagine sitting still for a while every day, or walking in a quiet place… imagine in the quiet that you might speak to God in prayer… imagine that perhaps in the quiet, you might hear God’s voice in your heart…
• Imagine taking a vacation from wasted time and foolish pursuits and laziness and finding time to do some of the spiritual things you want to do but never seem to get around to… Imagine planning and having the time to participate in parish prayer and activities in Lent and in Holy Week… Imagine a vacation that draws you closer to prayer with the Church…
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• Imagine taking a vacation from whatever are your bad habits, from over-indulgence, from gossiping, from self-concern, from jealousy and envy, from junk entertainment, from grudges long held and resentments carefully kept, from silence used to punish and manipulate others…
• Imagine taking a vacation from making your own circle of activity the center of the universe and finding, making the time to see God as the center of your life, your family, your friends, your work, your week…
• And imagine that on this vacation you find time to grow in your love of God, to reach out to those in need, to pray more often, to live a better Christian life, to get to confession, to be more faithful in coming to Mass, to delight in those around you, to lose some bad habits, to become aware of those realities we can only come to know when we take a vacation from all the things that so easily run our lives…
Image: HG |
What will it be, then? We can look ahead to Lent as an extension of wintry burdens or as a spring vacation meant to refresh, revive and ready us for Easter. The choice is ours!
Our Lenten vacation begins this week. If you’re not near your own parish on Ash Wednesday, find a church or chapel where you are and begin, with Christians all around the world, these forty days of grace and growth.
A good and happy Lent to you all!
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Thank you for all these Lenten practices. Thinking of them as a vacation makes it seem like fun---almost.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to present lent, a vacation from all that burdens us. 40 days of the freedom to be our 'true selves'. The desert isn't a place that allows a lot of extra baggage. I love how you worded it as vacation instead of the traditional - give something up. I will use this with our rel ed kids today - thank you.
ReplyDeleteAndie
I need to take a vacation from all of the things inside and outside of me that "weigh me down, wear me out and deplete my spirit..."
ReplyDeleteI actually have been trying to do this for a long time, but I didn't think of it as taking a vacation-
I know very well that this is VERY difficult and challenging and frustrating (and I haven't had much luck so far), but it seems, thanks to you, that there is no better time than Lent for trying again-
I was thinking, maybe I could "send postcards" (after all, this is a vacation, right?)
I could write or draw a picture, every day, as a way of sort of documenting, or journaling, my Lenten experience. And maybe this could be a little prayer time for God and me-
a time to talk (or not talk) about how things are going this Lent (good and bad).
what do you think?
thank you for this.