Last week we began our Lenten journey with ashes on our foreheads as a way to remind us to repent, change, or grow. Though change and growth are lifelong processes, during Lent we surely put forth some highly-conscious effort in these regards.
Knowing that we have some choice in our own ongoing growth (as in making the choice to abstain from certain actions or to purposefully engage in positive actions during Lent), it is also true that the really deep change in our lives only happens through and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Only when we open ourselves to a personal relationship with God, whom we come to know through the Heart of Jesus, does God’s Spirit facilitate our growth. Open to God’s transforming Spirit we begin to sharpen our ability to recognize Christ:
- in the depth of our being,
- in those around us, and
- in the whole of God’s Created world.
Once we honestly recognize the face of Christ in those three arenas, our attitudes about and actions toward each of them—with ourselves, with others and with all of creation—more freely become healthy and holy.
As our children and we engage in conscious choices and practices during Lent, let us root those practices in prayer, opening ourselves to God’s Spirit of Love, so that our actions are not simply activities, but become acts of personal transformation.
— Maureen Glavin, rscj
