The Lenten Journey Begun This Day

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the holy season of Lent. Lent is a time of special graces, a time to heed the words of the prophet Joel. God speaks to us today through Joel 2: 12-18: "Return to me with  your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God." The question I need to ask myself is: Why is God asking me to return to Him? I also need to take heed of the call to return to him with my whole heart! How am I, I need to ask myself, serving God halfheartedly?  sluggishly? Do I give God only my leftovers and give the best to other gods, to my idols, to things I treasure more than God? What, in my life each day, do I devote most of my energy, most of my time, especially time when I am free of the responsibilities of my profession, my career: the kids have been put to bed, the dishes and other chores are done, my community or priestly responsibilities are met, I've spent quality time playing with or listening to my children and communicating with my spouse or the members of my religious community with whom I live or fulfilling my duties as priest! Wow, I am free finally, I say to myself!    Is this a time that I am being called to turn my attention to the Lord in prayer, in reflecting upon a Scripture passage, the readings of the day's liturgy, a spiritual reading book that lifts my mind and heart and soul to God?

Maybe the fasting God is asking of me this Lent is to participate more fully in my children's life, in the life of my spouse or the members of my religious community, giving more of myself in sharing responsibilities around the house, in the parish, in meeting the needs of an elderly parent/fellow Sister, a needy parishioner,  listening to another person's story or concerns, especially that of one's spouse, one's fellow religious or priest, or, if married, in playing with or doing homework with my children.  "Rend your hearts, not your garments!"

Lord, help me know and do what it is, each day, that you ask of me in rending my heart so as to enhance the life of those with whom I live and for whom I have committed my life as a married person or a member of a religious community or a priest or as a single person. All of us are called to rend our hearts in some way! Let us pray for the grace to do so!

Turn to the Lord

In the first reading of today's liturgy, Joel 2: 12-18, the prophet invites us to "[r]end our hearts,not our garments..." during this holy season of Lent.  We are reminded that Lent is a time of conversion, of interiority, a time to "return to the Lord...For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger and rich in kindness..." (Joel 2: 12-18).

I thought of a small child who begs mom and dad to visit "Grandpa and Grandma?"  Why? Grandmas and Grandpas are "kind and merciful," loving and caring.  Hence, the child wants to be with his/her grandparents.
That thought led me to Jesus' words: Let the children come to me because of such is the Kingdom of heaven and unless you become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom. If our image of God is of Someone who is "gracious and merciful," "slow to anger" and "rich in kindness", what keeps us from turning, or returning, to the Lord every day to bask in that love? Why do we not, everyday, sit with the Lord, gazing upon the Lord with love and letting the Lord gaze back at us in love (God knows no other way to relate to us because God is love)? What restrains us from taking time to be with the Lord in an empty Church or in the quiet of nature or in the silence of  our hearts--all noise silenced--to simply rest with God, commune with God, love God in the depth of our being?

What if our resolve this Lent would be to "rend our hearts, not our garments"?