It's All About Love

As a child Valentine’s day was something to look forward to and prepare for; making Valentine cards for family and friends, getting sweets in the shape of hearts. On the other hand, Ash Wednesday was a day for fasting and prayer, reminders of our need for repentance and receiving the ashes to remind us we were mortal. I admit it was also fun to wear the ashes and have the kids at the neighbouring school wondering what we were up to. That these two feasts are happening on the same day this year raises the question of whether there is a gift available in their unusual coming together.

Image: Unsplash/Kelly Sikkema

Recently a dear friend passed away after a long, loving and faith-filled life. While reflecting on her life, the gift of these two feasts became abundantly clear.  It’s all about LOVE. Her life witnessed her love of family and friends faithfully, consistently, and delightfully with kindness, humour and quiet presence; Valentine love if you will. Her deep love of and gratitude to God were made obvious not just when she had ashes on her forehead but by her loving presence not only at church but in her community where she faithfully ministered. Thank you Rose.

As we begin our Lenten journey may we bring with us the gift of our growing awareness of what it means to BE LOVE personified.

-Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

...a Time of Healing

ASH WEDNESDAY….a Time of Healing

Restoring right relationships with self, God, one another, and creation is an act of love that is central in all faith traditions however it is expressed; it is the work of a lifetime and essential to peace and harmony in all creation.  

For Christians, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is an invitation to rethink our relationships with a renewed desire to transcend our ego and live more lovingly with one another. Traditionally the practices of prayer, self-denial, and support of the poor and marginalized seeking justice mark this sacred season. These 40 days are observed in commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his public ministry and for us they are a preparation for the celebration of the great feast of Easter, the living out of our mission of love.

For Jews, the ten days of Awe culminating in Yom Kippur are the holiest days of the year, a time of fasting, prayer and reflection focusing on the sins of the past year and seeking forgiveness.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik describes the 5 steps to forgiveness: admit your wrongdoing, detest it in your heart, commit to turning away from it, make restitution and finally ask for God’s forgiveness. Self-forgiveness is an important part of this process of atonement.

Sweat lodge ceremonies, spiritual practices of Indigenous people, are sources of healing, wisdom and gratitude where one purifies the mind, body and soul in order to restore right relationships with creation, our brothers and sisters and the Creator.

Lent is a time to strengthen your relationship with the God of Jesus, a time to reflect on where you are and where your heart is calling you to grow.  God loves you just the way you are but loves you too much to leave you there. The choice is yours.

-Sister Ann Marshall, csj

Ready, Set, Go

The genesis for my Ash Wednesday blogpost is a paragraph I recently read when leafing through a book on my friend’s coffee table. Edward Hays, in his reflection book, The Lenten Labyrinth, provides a pithy guide for our Lenten observance.

In the book’s foreword, the spiritual writer concisely depicts the spiritual magnitude of the gift of Lent. He proclaims:

“Rejoice, you are about to begin a great adventure

and a journey of transformation

which holds the power to change - to radically enrich

- your way of thinking and believing.”

The author strikes a surprising note using the word, “Rejoice!” for active Lenten participation. Many readers would be familiar with the association of rejoice and Laetare Sunday in Lent. However, the pairing of rejoice to include the whole of Lent is a novel idea and might take the Lenten participant off guard. More personal reflection is needed to discover how claiming this juxtaposition of rejoice and Lent might switch things up and provide us with a new Lenten experience.

Furthermore, the author having prescribed the Lenten spirit as, “Rejoice!” goes on to set its starting point, as beginning “a great adventure.” Its route is, “a journey of transformation” and its destination is interiorizing “a new way of thinking and believing.”

Hays advises us to think of ourselves as pilgrims on an annual pilgrimage. He emphasizes that our spiritual trek is in solidarity with other sojourners. How might our six- week Lenten experience be shaped if we thought of it as making a quasi-Camino? The writer encourages:

“Know that as you prepare

to make the first step on this journey,

you are doing it in the company of other pilgrims.”

On this Ash Wednesday, Christians are invited to begin their journey of transformation by stepping forward to receive the telltale mark of ashes on their foreheads and once again hear the ancient call, “Repent and believe the Good News.” Hays reminds us:

“While it will be private

- or rather a personal - retreat or renewal,

at the same time, it will be a global venture,

shared with your brother and sister Christians.”

Are you ready? Let’s go!

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj

A Reflection for Ash Wednesday

“ENOUGH ALREADY!”
For those of us steeped in the traditions of Lent, beginning each year on Ash Wednesday, and historically associated with acts of “giving up” we may this year, want to cry, “enough already”! The past year has been, for all peoples, a time of struggle, fear, and loss. We have seen the tragic loss of thousands upon thousands of lives. Some of us will have experienced such loss personally. We have not even been able to accompany loved ones in illness and dying or to participate in the healing rituals of grieving. Many have lost homes, hard-earned businesses, jobs, and dreams and we have lost much of the close intimacy of our relationships because of necessary social isolation. “So please don’t ask me to give up chocolate too!” and that is true. This year has been a year of great sacrifice for so many and although sacrifice or “giving up”, if done for the right reasons and offered to God, is an act of love it is by no means the heart of the meaning of Lent.

“An invitation to deepen our relationship with God”

Rather, Lent is the season of relationship. The traditional practices of Lent - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving hold meaning and relevance if and only if understood as an invitation to us to deepen our relationship with God and to be in right relationship with ourselves, with one another, and with all of creation. This integrated understanding of relationship is what is meant by the term “integral ecology”. All is connected. In this season, and perhaps especially in the troubled context and fragmented world in which we find ourselves, this Lent offers us a fresh opportunity to heal broken relationships, to deepen our love and care, and widen our horizons of connection. It is more than a simple “giving up”. The ancient Lenten practices are first and foremost a call to a deeper relationship and they are more than relevant for this new day.

So, how might we more fully “live Lent” this year? Many, who attend church on Ash Wednesday and receive the mark of the ashes on their foreheads may recall much debate some years ago because of a growing discomfort with the words used during the imposition of the ashes: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return”. Somehow, these words smacked of guilt and a lack of appropriate self-esteem. We replaced them with “repent and believe in the Gospel” – for many a more comfortable and positive phrase. But perhaps a return to the original words speaks a truth we need to hear again as we seek to heal and to deepen relationships this Lent. For, as both science and faith now remind us, we are indeed a part of creation, “dust of dust” and created as such by God with love. To begin to heal our relationships we must first understand just how glorious this is. Our whole being is affirmed in this belonging in and with creation and in recognizing such reality, we can allow Lent to invite us into becoming ever more deeply who God created us to be: in relationship, defined by relationship, sustained in a relationship of love.  

So what of the traditions and practicalities? In these difficult days, what is more healing than to go out into nature or if unable to do so to observe it from a window, in a plant, or flower in your home? Let this beauty embrace you, listen to it, see the reflection of God in it and give thanks, perhaps resolve one small way you can respond to the call to care for God’s earth. As Pope Francis says in his 2021 Lenten message, “Lent is precisely a season of hope when we turn back to God who patiently continues to care for his creation which we have so often mistreated.” From such a contemplative perspective, be led this Lent to the deepening of prayer, being present to the Divine Presence making time to deepen relationship with God whose love is unfailing even in the dark and stormy days of life. From this immersion in creation and in prayer allow yourself to know that you are loved and intrinsically connected to all others. Be gentle with yourself, an act often much harder than ascetic practices! Be gentle with others.

But what of Lenten fasting? Perhaps there are ways of fasting that are especially meaningful today. Not simply fasting from something I like or motivated by a slimmer figure but fasting from something for the good of the Earth, have some meatless days, or fast from indiscriminate energy use, for example. For the love and care of others, perhaps fast from judgments, gossip, or harsh words and instead call someone who is isolated and alone, affirm someone, reach out to mend a broken relationship, finds ways even during isolation to let someone know he or she is in your thoughts, your heart and your prayers. Then Lenten almsgiving follows and becomes more than giving money, although gifts of some kind may help those who are struggling financially just now, it can also be the gift of your patience at home, imagining ways to touch the lives of others, to gift your time, widen the reach of your generosity.

As we begin Lent this year go deeper, reach out, pray and give thanks. On Ash Wednesday make it a day of prayer, reflection, and commitment anew for hope in your heart and in the world.  Indeed, this is “enough already”!

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj