“Here we are, at Lent once again. Lent: that oh-so-Catholic time of year for practicing the art of sacrifice; not to perfect it, but to be perfected by it. For 40 days we are encouraged to lay aside every encumbrance to our faith, and take up the ancient disciplines that mark the true disciples of Christ. And for 40 days, we suffer the stuff we're made of -- and not made of.
“Lents come and Lents go. But while the season may be pretty much the same, my annual experience of it isn’t. There are years I manage to live Lent much more deeply than others. And there are years it has felt as if I’ve hardly lived it at all. I don’t want this year to be one of those. This year, I want to experience Easter as a promise kept, as the answer to the deepest longings I’ve rediscovered. This year, I want to be fully prepared to renew the vows of my baptism. I want to walk out of the Easter Vigil Mass completely empowered for a life of total immersion. The question is, ‘How?’
“. . . St. Francis de Sales, my very favorite spiritual guide, had some great advice about Lent. ‘Lent is the autumn of the spiritual life’ he wrote, ‘the time during which we gather fruit to keep us going for the rest of the year ... I am accustomed to say that we will not spend Lent well unless we are determined to make the most of it. Let us, therefore, spend this Lent as if it were our last, and we will make it well’ (Letters 329).”
In a recent commentary, writer Jaymie Stuart Wolfe reflected on living this year’s observance of Lent as if it were the last Lent we will ever experience.
To access Ms. Wolfe’s complete post, please visit:
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