Thursday, March 20, 2014

How Is Lent Going?

   So we're not quite to the middle yet, but how is your Lent going? Many of you might have thought I decided to give up blogging for Lent, but in fact my writing has just gotten a little edged out these days. Lent in our parish is usually taken up with preparing our high school freshmen for Confirmation. It's a wonderful time of year to help them prepare to receive a sacrament because we are surrounded by reminders of our faith on a daily basis during Lent, Stations of the Cross, fasting and abstinence days, prayerful retreats, and more chances for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  It's also a time for me to remember to just put everything in the Lord's hands and know things will work out.
  This year, because of our Church renovation, we must move our Confirmation ceremony Mass to our school gym.  This is a slight disappointment to our Confirmation crew because it's just not the same receiving a Sacrament in a gym setting as it is in our Church.  But we've been working on decorating and trying to bring it all together.  Those of you who decorate gyms on a regular basis understand what I mean.
  It's brought me to a place in both my faith and my vocation as a mom to really have to let go of things I cannot control.  I can't control us not being in Church, so we must make the best of being where we are. I also learned this week that my married daughter living almost 2,000 miles away has the flu and I can't be nearby to bring soup or Kleenexes to her either. So in both these things I must "let go and let God".  Truly a Lenten challenge for me.
  I pray that during this Lent you can also "let go and let God."  It's not so much an act of resignation as it has been sharing. I can only do so much as a human being, and somehow God is helping me understand and be patient with that idea.  I pray you can find that too during this Lent.