IN THESE DAYS OF LENTEN JOURNEY

I hope those who know me know me to be a deeply spiritual person. Connecting with my creator, my God, is one of the most important and necessary things for me to do. There are so many ways to connect with God. While it is a matter of such great importance to me, I must admit that I don’t always do a great job at it. Even as we are in the midst of the special spiritual season of Lent, I am finding it a challenge to give my all to God, to live up to the promises I made for Lent. The discipline of prayer is absolutely one of the most difficult things to put into practice. I spent some time last week praying the Rosary, but have somewhat fallen off this week. I also had promised to devote myself to my fitness routine. Two weeks into this year’s Lenten journey, I’ve not been so good with that one either. Today, I forced myself to go to the gym and really work out…not just go to the gym and do the bare minimum, just to say I had been. I really felt like I had done something good today. I hope I can keep it up. I’m determined to make it stick. I did it several years ago and really felt good about myself. I'm looking for that feeling again.

The beautiful thing about God is that he is a God of a second chance. If we don’t get things right the first time, he allows us to push the restart button and begin anew. So, I haven’t spent the time in prayer that I had hoped I would. I haven’t committed myself fully to my fitness routine. I think the important part is that I am trying to so something positive.

In these days of Lenten journey, I find myself reflecting on my spiritual life. I’m focusing not just on my Catholic faith, but the journey that brought me to Catholicism. Having grown up in the Bible Belt and having been surrounded by various Christian influences my entire life, either from family, church, college, friends or some other form, it’s a struggle to know what to believe; to know what is true. We must know how to separate the allegorical from the literal. It’s that very quandary that has turned so many of my friends away from God, thrown them off their journey toward God. It’s very sad. To me, connecting with the peaceful presence of God is such an enriching experience. It is an encounter with love in its most beautiful form. Still, some choose to deny it, discount it or ignore it completely. Perhaps there are things in my life that I am guilty of discounting that my friends can’t understand about me.

Here’s my confession: It may be a simple hymn, a smile from a passerby, the kind and reassuring words of a friend or attempts at reconciliation with friends and family members we may have very well written off, but all hold the power to connect us with the divine. There is a place in all of us where we go to find peace, to find that connection. We may have different names for it. It may not necessarily be “God” or “Spiritual”, but its result is most assuredly a deep connection with our souls. It’s deeply personal. I hope as I continue though this Lenten journey toward the Holy celebration Easter that I will be able to connect with my spirit more deeply, that I will press my “restart” button and continue my spiritual growth, that I may rise from my offering of ashes to become the person God wants me to become, to learn the lessons the times of quiet reflection Lent can provide. It is my hope, my prayer, that those around me will see the reflection of my creator in my daily life.