hold your eye on the sunny place in this season.

hold your eye on the sunny place in this season. It will give you the primary nod as to what this period we call Lent is all about. In our northern hemisphere, Lent coincides with the turning of the earth towards the orb of day the springing forth of life from the apparent death of winter's frigid grasp.

The surpassingly word "Lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon lencthen, originally referring to the lengthening of the light. From this original meaning, confirmed in the motion from winter's darkness to spring's increasing vitality, we are invited to impel out of our own personal lethargy to vitality, from ashes to the paschal feast. Lent in short, is about coming to life in novel ways. It is about growth

It's spirit is better captured by way of the pouring of water at Easter baptisms than according to the burning of palms onward Ash Wednesday. The history of Christian worship reminds us that Lent exists as a time to prepare candidates for baptism and to invite all the baptized to repair their baptismal consecration at Easter. one time again, the emphasis is in succession new life.

If you were to take that approach to Lent this year, you might ask: "What would bring me more alive?" The practices of physical and spiritual disciplines you fix upon would be in light of Jesus' words, "I came that you might have life and have it to the full!" (John 10:10) Ye you might stool on a practice or sum of two units that has some "bite" in it, on the contrary it would be undertaken in the spirit of pruning a rose bush, of cutting back the branches that have grown too wild, in order to cultivate more flowers that give glory to God

If you approached your life in period of times of a holistic spirituality, looking at your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being to papal court where things have fallen revealed of balance, have grown wild, and ne about pruning or fertilizer or watering, you might ask yourself a certain questions like these:

in what way is the balance between my active and contemplative life? Do I employ much more time "conjugating" the verb doing, wanting, having than the verb being? What forms of prayer might help me restore any contemplative space to my living to allow my chief part to breathe?

What is the balance between mind and material substance in my day? If the scale tips heavily towards major engagement of the mind if it were not that minor involvement for the dead body what kind of physical exercise might I take delight in that would have the benefit of renewing my manliness enabling me to sleep better, and bring a more relaxed mien to those with whom I live and work?

Is there unfashioned equilibrium between time invested in taking care of myself and time dedicated to taking care of others? If I cannot identify a clear service dimension somewhere in the deployment of my time and animation what opportunities are there in my locale to assist the homeles the in want of food the sick or the aged?

Is my relational life blossoming, or dying forward the vine? Maybe laying in an evening a week to lavish with spouse or friends would be like watering free from moisture soil and bring alive your affectivity with laughter and tears.

What's the balance between passive watching (as in television) and active reading (as in a well adapted book that nourishes the soul)? Could used in lent fasting take the form of fewer sitcoms watched yet more chapters read?

And what's the ratio between the time my functional activities master and the time made available to nourishment my creative energies? Maybe a pious Lenten resolution would be to commit to memory out at least once a week to an art gallery or a museum, or to an inspiring play or movie.

Whatever you seat on in this season of a springtime for the spirit, withhold your eye on the sunny place and imitate the earth in turning more completely towards the light. Do what will bring you and others more entirely to life. There could be no better preparation for the Easter feast of water and light, no better offering to make at the altar, than a heart and spirit renewed and grateful to the holy trinity for the gift of life the couple human and divine.

Tom Ryan is a member of the Paulist community, (www.paulist.org), planted by an American priest Isaac Hecker in 1858 to "give the Word a voice". You can generally find the Paulists in the heart of big cities, running information middles staffing Newman clubs and generally articulating in aye fresh ways what the word of the author of all things may look like in changing settings. No strangers to microphones, studios, op pages and Hollywood settles the Paulists are usually where the action is.

Tom Ryan "CSP no stranger to CNT operates from Paulist Central onward W. 59th street in modern York City. Presently he directs the Paulist North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.

...

Home