Lenten Meditation – March 10, 2009

Tuesday, March 10

 

“How important forgiveness is can’t be exaggerated. One way of putting it is ‘to be at peace with everyone.’ It also means being prepared to take everyone into your heart, willing to share everyone’s pain and joy as if it were your own. . . . This oneness is so close that we are more one than individuals. And so the spiritual journey can never be a privatized set of practices, because whenever you start the spiritual journey, the whole of humanity, and perhaps creation, goes along and shares the journey with you.”   Father Thomas Keating

This is how I feel about Lent, that it is a step in the ongoing walk in unity toward God.  Knowing Lent means knowing one’s own heart.  During Lent, a quieter time than usual, we can contemplate the fullness of life and feel deep gratitude for the path.  Life deepens during Lent.  It quietly waits and rejoices.  It does not act in anger or in impatience, and so we don’t have to either.  I am especially free spiritually during Lent because that is the time I feel most tied to the Lord, to the path, to the walk.  When the path leads us to Easter, to even newer life and resurrection, then “the whole of humanity, and perhaps creation, goes along and shares the journey with” each of us.

Deni Harding