The Lenten Journey

Lent arrived long before I was ready this year.  And yet, these past days have made me realize how sorely needed this shared journey of 40 days truly is!  The challenges and pain facing our country, world, and universe make this Lenten journey more significant than ever.   

I feel like we are beginning Lent at the foot of the cross.  Our country is caught in darkness, polarization, violence, injustice, lack of basic civility and respect.  We need this Lenten journey to lead us beyond darkness and sin to experience the power of new Life, of Redemptive Love that is the final word! 

What if this journey of Lent truly creates space within me, within us to become in some new way conduits of the Way, the Truth, the Life we know in Jesus?
 
What if this journey enables us to see with new eyes the pain, the judgments, the prejudice within and around us that adds to the darkness of this moment? 

What if my heart could be broken open—even a fraction—to make room for the cries of my sisters and brothers? What if this journey stirs up within me the courage and determination to respond to those cries?

What if we find ways to break out of our camps and comfort zones, to create paths to new understanding? 

What if we find words to speak Truth and live Truth and meet Truth in all our worlds?  

How might we, in this time here and now, bridge the divides of judgment and prejudice? 

These are not just rhetorical questions nor pious thoughts.  This moment holds a radical, herculean call to conversion, to undaunted courage!

I need this Lent more than ever.  The need is far beyond my capacity, my ability alone to respond.  With faith, I trust this is precisely where God’s Spirit awaits us, where the power of Redemptive Love will free us of the shackles which are binding us, blinding us and holding us captive.  

I begin these 40 days conscious we cannot journey alone.  May we be good companions for each other, sources of wisdom, hope, and courage.  May the choices we make wherever we find ourselves, however insignificant they may seem, clear space and make room for greater love!  

I pray blessings upon you and the journey ahead.

Discovering the More

Christmas may seem long past to many.  But this weekend draws us into the heart of the Mystery.   On Sunday, we find ourselves with the Magi—seekers, lost but undaunted, stargazers open to the unexpected, searching for the long awaited One.  I wonder how they really felt after their arduous journey led them to a baby in a manager with a young mother and anxious father looking on? How did the Magi SEE what lay before them?  

Aren’t we all seekers in this journey we call life…seekers of meaning, hope, truth, Love, …and the God who alludes us?  Don’t we have moments when we lose focus, or struggle to know which way to turn to find the way forward?  

How often do we miss the very gift we are seeking because our expectations blind us!

Beginning the Advent Journey

Thanksgiving has passed.  The world around us is caught in a frenzy of consumerism.  One sale becomes more tempting than the next, awakening needs for things beyond our imagining and often beyond our grasp, save for that magical plastic card.

In the midst of all of this, Advent quietly enters the scene inviting us into another space, another consciousness.   And at the heart of the Advent journey is Mary, a young woman walking in faith, open to Mystery, attentive to the new life growing within and caught in her own wonderings—How could this be?

Maria,donna dell’attesta di Don Tonio

 I find myself longing to see with Mary’s eyes this Advent, to walk with her to Bethlehem.   Bethlehem—that place with no room for the stranger.  Bethlehem---a time of darkness, uncertainty and fear for a young pregnant woman.    What did it mean for Joseph and Mary to abandon any thought of comfort and settle for a manger, with its smells and mess?   How did such a setting become the birthing place where God chose to break into our world, to make real the Word of Love?  What might Mary and Joseph teach us this Advent?

We all have our frustrated plans, our disappointments and looming fears.  We find ourselves living in a moment filled with so much