What are our hopes for the season of Lent? To grow closer to
God? To “wash away the negligences of other times,” as St. Benedict proposes in
his Rule? To rein in our self-indulgence and be more attentive to the needs of
others?
Sr. Lynn Levo has noted that true hope is based on connection, attachment, and engagement:
• We need connection with others—the prayer and support of community—as
we walk through the season of Lent together.
• We need to acknowledge our attachment to God by inviting the
Holy One to “set your seal upon my heart and live in me,” as John Bell notes in his song Take O Take Me As
I Am.
• We need to engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to
give flesh to our hopes.
It is right that we should begin Lent with hope, for as Romans
5:5 indicates, “…hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been
poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Let us
embark on this season in hope, then, confident that the irrepressible love of the
Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit will continue to spill over into our Lenten
lives.
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