“There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” – Pope Francis
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten 40 day journey leading to Easter. A time of preparation, prayer, reflection, contemplation, inventory, honesty. Going deeper and farther. Into the desert. To search. To find. To thirst. To be satisfied. Less becomes more. To be quiet to hear the whisper that we are loved, infinitely. And to return the love that has been modeled so stunningly for us. Life-changing if we let it enter and move us.