March Hare, Ides of March, March Winds, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick’s Day, St Joseph’s Day, School Winter break, no wonder March needs 31 days.
I have always found March to be “Hope Month.” It seems like a slide between winter and spring. With the winter we have experienced, HOPE is a must.
In March we have glimpses of spring and then BANG, winter again blows out her windy breath. Mother Nature has a wonderful sense of humor and the laugh is always on us. Isn’t it great to be Canadian?
March suggests forward moving, not backward steps. The Lenten Season also invites us to move forward spiritually, maybe with the wind at our back. Ash Wednesday, March 5th, is the jumping off point. Remember keeping your candy in a jar for forty days, not really giving up but hoarding – we didn’t grasp the true meaning of the Lenten journey or Lenten “March.”
We are called to change not endure. To help us along the “March” we get two stopovers to recharge our batteries – St. Patrick’s Day and St Joseph’s Day – certainly two saints who knew how to march.
There are many types of Marches just as there are many types of “us.” Sometimes we may feel that we are out of step but what is really important is moving forward in our call to conversion.
We say “March comes in as a lion and goes out like a lamb.” We should be right on target this year! We have had enough “lion” – on with the lamb. “Jesus the Lamb of God.” Join this March, beginning March 5th. He marched into Jerusalem and on the third day He rose from the dead.
As the story goes “Onward Christian Soldiers”
March – March- March
Barbara Vaughan, CSJ