Go Into the Wilderness...

LENT I

Reflecting upon St. Luke’s Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent, my thoughts took me to a place where I began to reminisce about the past when the Spirit of God led me into the wilderness. It was a time of resistance; it was a place that I would rather not go. Something or someone had a hold on me. Do you know what I mean?

Whatever hold this was, it blurred my vision, and I did not want to listen. The intensity of confusion, emptiness and aloneness just kept escalating. Then a period of desperation followed and finally a move to willingly accept entry into that desert space and face the truth of what was holding me in captivity. I recall how God was trying to get my attention. I heard a voice gently saying, “Stay with Me on this one.  Okay?” Initially my response was a bit weak; all I could do or say was “okay!” In that moment, my life began to change.

In today’s Gospel passage, we see Jesus full of the Spirit being led into the wilderness and tempted three times by Satan. His identity, authority, and source of sustenance are being called into question and Satan attempts to manipulate Jesus in three areas. He wants to redefine Jesus’ identity, get him to abdicate his authority from God, and to lure him into acquiring a source of sustenance that is unfulfilling. The bottom line is that nobody and nothing could separate him from God alone because he knew who he was and for whom he was offering his life.

“nothing could separate him from God alone because he knew who he was and for whom he was offering his life.”

I have heard that temptations are necessary for spiritual growth. Once we deal with temptation and overcome whatever is being resisted, we can experience spiritual transformation. That is what happened to me before I could recognize certain cravings- cravings that we all have from time to time such as the need for recognition, acquisition of power, prestige and possessions and desires of all kinds. Jesus himself had desires! All through his public ministry he had to grapple with his identity as Son of God and testified to the leaders of the synagogue that he was not a political hero, miracle worker or leader in conventional ways. Instead, He moved past seeking validation, physical desires, ambition, glory, and fame.

This Season is a graced time to check-in again and to deepen our personal and communal identity and rightful use of power and source of sustenance with which Jesus was tempted . If ever there was a time in our world to move beyond whatever potentially enslaves us, the time is NOW. We know our worth and we know where we belong. There are so many voices crying to be heard and so many pleas for justice.

Continuing on the path of moving with love, I am inspired by our congregation’s recent commitment to the world.  In this day and age of complexity we made the following statement,

“Immersed in Life and Love we embrace this moment of possibility as a graced path to Transformation.” 

What a tall order!  This time, I’m ever so grateful to God to say, okay; I’m staying with you on this one!

-Sister Linda Parent, csj

Vocation Vignettes

Vocation Vignettes

The Federation Vocation Animation team heard the question,

"where have all the Sisters gone?"

and developed a series of short video vignettes to offer an answer. Each month we release a new video, each on a different theme, or featuring one of our Sisters.  This month, they offer you a story of "call" that spans the decades and the globe by sharing the story of Sister Divinia Pedro. Watch the video here:  Sister Divinia Pedro.mp4 - Google Drive

Fat Tuesday

What is in a name? Mardi Gras (or in English, “Fat Tuesday”) has evolved in New Orleans far from the Christian roots of the French-speaking Acadians.  Expelled from New Brunswick by the British government, many Acadians settled in Louisiana where they maintained practices such as observing Mardi Gras. 

On the Tuesday preceding Lent fat was used up in preparing rich foods that would be prohibited during the forty-day penitential season beginning with Ash Wednesday on the following day. Lent is the forty-day period preceding Easter Sunday; it represents the forty-day fast of Jesus in the desert prior to beginning his public ministry and is observed by many Christian denominations.

Traditional practices include fasting, abstinence from meat, almsgiving, and sacrificing such pleasures as going to movies or consuming alcoholic beverages. In New Orleans, Mardi Gras has become a not-so-Christian event characterized by extravagant parades and celebrations. Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday, the day on which Christians would confess and be “shriven” or released from the guilt of sins of the preceding year prior to the forty days of penitence and atonement.

In a recent conversation with friends, stories of family practices on the day preceding Lent were exchanged. A pancake supper in my family meant that my mother stood at the stove cooking and serving pancakes smothered in butter and maple syrup. My seven siblings and I would press forks through the cooked dough in search of the tokens that supposedly predicted our future: A button indicated permanent bachelorhood; a dime foretold future wealth, and a ring signified marriage.  Another person described her ravenous brothers requiring their mother to toil endlessly producing the delicacies, which she despised, quickly enough to keep up with their demands and fill their hollow legs. A woman originally from England served her version of pancakes (thin crepes topped with lemon juice and icing sugar) to Canadians who snubbed them as inferior. A person from an Italian family had to develop the art of making thin crepes with a meat filling. Another member of the group informed us that she attends a pancake supper fundraiser at a church.

Do you have ways in which you mark the annual event of Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday?

-Sister Pat McKeon, csj

Ready, Set, Go

The genesis for my Ash Wednesday blogpost is a paragraph I recently read when leafing through a book on my friend’s coffee table. Edward Hays, in his reflection book, The Lenten Labyrinth, provides a pithy guide for our Lenten observance.

In the book’s foreword, the spiritual writer concisely depicts the spiritual magnitude of the gift of Lent. He proclaims:

“Rejoice, you are about to begin a great adventure

and a journey of transformation

which holds the power to change - to radically enrich

- your way of thinking and believing.”

The author strikes a surprising note using the word, “Rejoice!” for active Lenten participation. Many readers would be familiar with the association of rejoice and Laetare Sunday in Lent. However, the pairing of rejoice to include the whole of Lent is a novel idea and might take the Lenten participant off guard. More personal reflection is needed to discover how claiming this juxtaposition of rejoice and Lent might switch things up and provide us with a new Lenten experience.

Furthermore, the author having prescribed the Lenten spirit as, “Rejoice!” goes on to set its starting point, as beginning “a great adventure.” Its route is, “a journey of transformation” and its destination is interiorizing “a new way of thinking and believing.”

Hays advises us to think of ourselves as pilgrims on an annual pilgrimage. He emphasizes that our spiritual trek is in solidarity with other sojourners. How might our six- week Lenten experience be shaped if we thought of it as making a quasi-Camino? The writer encourages:

“Know that as you prepare

to make the first step on this journey,

you are doing it in the company of other pilgrims.”

On this Ash Wednesday, Christians are invited to begin their journey of transformation by stepping forward to receive the telltale mark of ashes on their foreheads and once again hear the ancient call, “Repent and believe the Good News.” Hays reminds us:

“While it will be private

- or rather a personal - retreat or renewal,

at the same time, it will be a global venture,

shared with your brother and sister Christians.”

Are you ready? Let’s go!

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj