A recent Lenten homily spoke to my heart in a profound manner. Our rural Catholic community doesn’t boast of many grandiose things. We are a humble church and a humble people. But our pastor spoke boldly and confidently. He pierced the hearts of many with these words: “God is challenging us to step outside of what is comfortable and familiar. He is asking us to trust Him, so that we might be transformed as He was transfigured. We become new creations when we follow His lead.”
You see, we are on the cusp of a major move out of town. My family will soon be embarking on an entirely unfamiliar journey not unlike the one Our Lady and St. Joseph took to Bethlehem. Granted, it won’t be by foot or on donkey through the desert, but our journey is unknown and unwritten. It bespeaks of discomfort, challenge, and change.
As I was packing box after box of memorabilia and common household items alike, I paused for a moment to reflect on our pastor’s message. My eye caught a glimpse of a half-used box of cards, so I took one out to read it. It was one that defined our life’s journey as a family once our daughter, Sarah, was born 4 years ago. The card was crafted with love: the photo taken by a family friend to visually depict the phrase we had chosen to describe our life. That phrase was “out of the darkness and into the light,” and the image was of a sunrise over a local Indiana lake.
That card reminded me that our Lenten journey may be unknown and unfamiliar, but it is a call to greater things. We simply cannot become holy without venturing into territory that we’ve never seen or experienced. The landscape of our lives is vast, and only God knows how our stories will unfold over time. But if we remain holed up in our comfortable places and do not take that first step, that leap of faith, we will never know what lies beyond the here and now.
What is known to us today was not revealed five years ago. So it is with moving. Maybe you are not literally moving out of a house, neighbourhood, and parish you have come to love, but you are moving-either forward or backward. We all are. Life does not stay stagnant. Even if we do nothing to improve our interior disposition, we are receding in faith. This Lent, we are called to move away from the darkness-what is known and comfortable-and into the light, which is what lies beyond.
Lent beckons us to move forward, to never stand in one place for too long but to continue moving steadily on the path God has revealed to us, one step at a time. He may not show us the big picture or the grand finale of our life, but He will allow us to see what’s next and how that step forward fits into the plan He has in mind for us.
Change is never easy. Human nature is such that we long for stability and security. But growth does not occur when we are comfortable. Growth happens when we are stretched beyond what we know, understand, or desire. That’s where true character building takes place-in that step out of the darkness and into the light.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
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“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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