1st Sunday of Lent 2022

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”

Is this not the best news ever!

While traditionally Lent was a time where we gave up, did penance, prayed the Rosary more, and these are all good things to do, I like Lent better now then when I was younger.

I couldn’t see the connection with giving up something for Lent, when you knew you would go right back to it after Lent. Giving up candy as a child was easy when you knew Easter would bring you all the chocolate you could want! When my children were in elementary school, we gave up all condiments for Lent….no ketchup, mustard, or salad dressing. I really can’t remember why it seemed like a Lenten thing to do. I think it had to do with being thankful for what was cooked, and not drown what we don’t like with ketchup. Or maybe it was a lesson in how much we had, and maybe others didn’t have the luxury of dressings and sauces. There was a transformation, as to this day I don’t use ketchup, mustard, or salad dressing. I find the food tastes so much better. So maybe there is a lesson to take from that Lent to this Lent.

I think now that Lent is a time to reflect, pray, to find sometime in our busy days to sit with God. To take some moments of silence, and just be. To strip away all the extras and just be with God. When I do this, I find myself feeling so much more peaceful. So, I can take that peace, that stillness, that time of knowing I am loved out to others. This Lent is a time for looking at who I am, and what I need to change about myself. Not change in others, but change in myself, so that I can truly try again to live the Gospel. A time of growth and change, to really know I can change. A time of reflection. To know that I can be the person who strives to forgive others, who learns how to feed the poor, who brings justice to the oppressed. I believe that I need the time of Lent to take stock of where I need to change, to grow, to love so I am ready to sing the Alleluia of a Risen Christ!

So, I encourage you to spend some time in silent prayer, so that you have the strength and courage to change and to transform. Don’t be so hard on yourselves is my next advice, God loves you.