It's the holiest week of the liturgical year and yet I still find myself wondering where the season of Lent has gone and feel a bit lost.
Life in general is like that right now. A household with a newborn, toddler and growing up big kids seems to have left me in a time warp.
I am still wandering in the desert. The dry and lonely desert. I think that when your spiritual life is currently bland and lifeless, so too many other facets of your life can tend to feel. Perhaps I'm mistaking the dry, destitute and empty wasteland as useless and forsaken. For such times as these I may be most fruitful and being formed most by the Divine Potter's hands. His voice may be silent and His guiding hand gentle, but yet they are ever-present.
My Lenten walk may have been meant to be scattered with less boulders and more pebbles and stones this year. He probably knew that life adjustments with two little ones would take me further in my Lenten offerings than another type of sacrifice ever could.
Instead of wishing I had a Lenten do-over perhaps I need to be patient with myself and make my Holy Week more prayerful. Maybe by reminding myself of the sacrifice of Christ Himself, I will make it through the desert. Like Simon of Cyrene, maybe I am needed to help someone else carry their cross today.
As we walk through this week and the journey of Jesus' passion and death, may it draw us closer to Him and to His mother who stood at the foot of the cross.
I agree! Sometimes our life is just Lent - and we don't need to add anything to the road that is already hard enough :) Hoping the coming of Christ on Sunday will help renew in you! Many blessings, Holly
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine a more fruitful Lent than the one you're in right now!!
ReplyDeleteI think, for me, it's been a weird lent...not doing the things I usually do, not doing as much as I usually do, and it going so incredibly fast. I gave things up...but would have done it whether it were lent or not because of the baby. (gluten free and no Diet Coke) (OK, I don't buy the cans and have them here at home...but do get a diet coke sometimes when I'm out shopping or picking up kiddos I'll stop sometimes and get one at McD's)
ReplyDeleteI just keep telling myself, it's only a year. A year out of our lives, that will go so very fast and we will look back on with a "Whew, glad that year is over!" Or a "Gosh that year went fast, wish they were that little again!"
Wanting to get past this stage of pumping and feeding and being up all night, yet trying to enjoy it at the same time.
Easter is almost here and Easter lasts a long time, lots of time to get out of the desert!
Sometimes, I think the Lents that we don't feel like we're "doing anything" are the ones that teach us the most about humility.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know about you, but I'm always up for a lesson in humility that doesn't involve my children and/or public displays of nudity.
This is EXACTLY how I've been feeling this lent. Totally fruitless, yet praying that the Lord is molding me into something new and beautiful. It's hard to believe that but I must!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. I started to panic at the beginning of the week that I needed to DO something--plan crafts, commemmorate this week as being different. Then I realized, this Lent has been full of sacrifices. Sometimes when we DO a lot, we feel that we have gone the extra mile. Maybe when we feel we arent DOing a lot it is because we have. Lets just pray for each others sanctity!?!
ReplyDeleteOur priest a few weeks ago said this, "Find the living water in your desert place." Find peace in this season of your life Sarah, God is never not molding those who seek Him and who have their hearts focused on Him. May God bless you with contentment and joy. God bless your family.
ReplyDeleteSecond what they all said, but especially what Meredith said. Lent is not a cookie cut out. I had to come to terms with that two years in a row. Last year I stumbled along the way do to my terrible loss. This year I thought I should do better because of our wonderful gift. Two extreme opposites but with the same outcome. I have finally accepted that my lent is my life...the ups and downs of having a newborn and homeschooling. It is how we handle those day-to-day events that take place in mommy-hood is what I am focusing on. Prayers. don't forget, the Divine Mercy Novena starts Friday!
ReplyDelete