Welcome, come in, stay, read, imagine and renew.
If you think of Lent as a PIA, then I invite you to read a little further to see why I think of it as a
PAA.
Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten Journey of 40 days (which does not include Sundays, yippeeeee!) towards Easter, the most important celebration of Christians.
As an aside, when I was little I thought (of course) that Christmas was the most important Christian Celebration all year. See about that here. The mountain of presents, the traditions, the decorations, the constant frizzle and frazzle that created a day of food and finery that children just were in awe of and anxiously anticipated. However, a sweet nun enlightened me once. Her words were something like this: He is the God of Creation, He could have created any numerous ways to bring Christ, man and God, into being. He chose bringing Him from the beginning, as a baby. But he did not have to. That the Baby grew into a man and suffered for sin and brought down Satan and opened the Gates of Heaven for all, that is what is most worthy of celebration. Easter is the most important holiday.
I still remember her gray hair and black heavy habit. I remember thinking wow!! I never knew THAT!!!
and DOUBLE Wow!
I wish I had faith like THAT!!!
I love the WOWness of Childhood :)
Now, if you find large celebrations unnerving at times, with all of the shopping, the spending, the buying, the spending, the baking, the eating, the cooking, the eating, the cleaning, the exhaustion, the decorating, the exhaustion; you might want to take a MUCH CLOSER LOOK at Lent and why it is a PAA.
In preparing for Lent, we start with (of all things) dirty foreheads, we do not have to worry about fancy clothes, fancy anything,
Good thing because my windows are filthy this time of the year, so my forehead might as well be a bit soiled too. Dust to dust.
Now where are we going to take this dust?
Into Prayer, more of it everyday. Prayer at morning, and night and anytime we want. A conscientious effort to spend more time talking to the God who created all of us and the world around us, and maybe figuring out what He may have been trying to tell us. We miss a a lot of Him when we are so busy, busy, busy preparing for other celebrations. Like with Christmas, we are preparing the OUTSIDE: the homes, the clothes, our hair, the food, the cleaning, the buying the preparation of all the stuff on the outside. Sometimes at Christmas everything looks beautiful on the outside but on the inside (in our hearts) things may just be a bit messy, you know. Sometimes, it leaves people feeling deflated when the big day arrives because we are not even in touch with what we are really celebrating. However in Lent, we prepare for Easter by PREPPING the INSIDE (of us) with Prayer! How easy is that???!!!!!
Into Abstinence, this is the one I really feel relieved about because I only am now learning to cook and it is such a relief to know that I do not have to cook, cook, cook
and bake, bake, and bake. I can pass on the dessert and the extra rich food. But, I also like what saying NO can do to my pocket book, it starts to feel like a pocketbook again :)
Into Almsgiving, this might sound like someone is asking for you to pick up that pocket book and spend what you do not have, but that is not true. Almsgiving does not have to always be writing a check. Sometimes the true benefit of Almsgiving is when you donate
time to a worthy cause. Volunteering where people suffer often leaves thankfulness for blessings we may have taken for granted. So many who volunteer for organizations during the Christmas rush have remarked that their Christmas seems so much more meaningful to them. During Lent, when we may want to hibernate away, volunteering could draw us out into a Community who needs us and everyone thrives when they are needed.
Share with us what you re doing to make this Lent a real PAA :)
