It is Time to Prepare for Lent

Ground Hog’s Day is past and can you believe that Lent begins this Wednesday?! Didn’t we just celebrate Christmas? We have been blessed with a beautifully pleasant winter this year that allowed us to stay busy – no blizzards and snow days to slow us down. So as we look ahead to the Liturgical Season of Lent, let us make a conscience effort to slow ourselves a bit, taking time to be more reflective, about life and about our relationship with God and His people. As Christians we are called to be deliberate in making a commitment to prayers, fasting and almsgiving during the upcoming Lenten season.

In this Year of Mercy as proclaimed by Pope Francis, we might do well to examine our lives taking an inventory of how we do or do not show mercy toward others. In the Gathering Place there is a message from our Social Concerns Committee that reads: “Mercy is a willingness to enter into another’s chaos”. Mercy is about extending love and compassion to others and is born out of concern for them, whether they are members of our family or circle of friends, or simply the people with whom we share life in this world.

Are we willing to take time to learn about and care about what is happening in the lives of others? Are we willing to enter into the chaos of their lives so that we might be of service to them? Or would we rather look the other way, so as not to complicate our own lives? Loving others can be trying and messy, not always sweet and joyful; it is hard work to provide for the needs of others. To be sure there is an abundance of need within our families, our community and our world that calls us to offer love and compassion. Will we, can we, at least think about entering into the lives of others in such a way that they might come to know God’s love for them through the love and care that we extend? If each of us could extend God’s love and mercy to another this Lent, we can only imagine how their lives and ours might be blessed!

May God bless our Lenten Journey

Deb Rudolph