February 12, 2015 – From Sr. Carole Anne Griswold
On Wednesday, February 18, we begin another Lent. How many Lents have you lived? What transformation in your life took place because of the way you journeyed through Lent? What made certain Lents special for you?
You need not look far to find daily reflections for Lent. These booklets, pages, websites are multiple and present multitudinous themes for reflection. Each author will present the theme that addresses what he or she believes is so important that others are invited to focus one’s Lenten thoughts, reflections and actions on this particular theme. Examples may be caring for the poorest people in society, following Jesus for 40 days, taking action to care for creation, focus on the vows, support the efforts to help immigrant children, perhaps feeding the hungry, or it may be as one author stated simply, called to love.
Only YOU can and must decide how you will walk this Lenten journey.
Henri Nouwen in his 1996 Reflections, Called to Life, Called to Love, offers a simple but challenging suggestion:
“Lent offers a beautiful opportunity to discover the mystery of Christ within us.
It is a gentle but also demanding time.
It is a time of solitude but also community.
It is a time of listening to the voice within, but also a time of paying attention to other people’s needs.
It is a time to continuously make the passage to new inner life as well as to life with those around us.”
Each one of us will hear the call to life, the call to love. How will you respond to that call during these Lenten days. How will you journey through Lent 2015? What is your hope for this special season of the Church year?
