There is a beauty as well as a wildness to Lent’s path. In a reading from Isaiah at the Easter Vigil we hear God tell Israel, “I lay your pavements in carnelians, and your foundations in sapphires.” The readings marking our way along the days of the Lenten season are indeed like gemstones. Join me in walking the path this Lent.
“ Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them.” Matt 6:1a
“Why?” asks Jesus in the gospel. Why do you pray, fast, give alms? To be noticed? To be applauded? To be witness? Or to become? To become the face of Christ to your neighbor.
Lent is a time of noticing, rather than being noticed. To stand back, sit down, empty out, and notice why and how I pray, where I am needed, who I should be.
Lent calls us beyond the giving up of small luxuries, or even necessities, but through that emptying of ourselves and that carrying of others, to become Christ. “Where is their God?” cried those who saw Israel’s travails in the first reading. God is among us, in our neighbors, in our hearts. Would that you could read that on my face every day.
— Based on reflections from Not By Bread Alone (2018), Michelle M. Francl-Donnay
Thank you, Michelle. I have these two reflections in my files, because I have been reading "Not By Bread Alone" for a few years now. I look forward to your daily reflections during Lent.
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