As we celebrate this Fourth Sunday of Lent, journeying with young people and the entire school community, the Lenten season can be experienced in a different perspective for our own spiritual growth. Through our baptism, we are called to participate in the mission of Our Lord Jesus for the salvation of each one of us and of the entire world.
This is the invitation that we find in today’s readings. However, this mission is not one person’s show in a way that each one of us as a member of community has to do something for the glory of God.
What does Lent meant to you and me? Each one of us today needs to ask and reflect on this question.
Lent should be more than a time of fasting. It should also be a joyous season of feasting.
Lent is a time to fast from certain things and feast on others.
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ within them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience
Fast from worry; feast on the divine order.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on the non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from sluggishness; fast on discipline.
Fast from isolation; feast on friendship.
Fast from tyranny; feast on liberation.
Fast from diminishment; feast on growth.
Adapted from “A Lenten Prayer” by the late William Arthur Ward.
Image by Nino Souza Nino from Pixabay
Erasmus Eliud Manwa C.S.Sp.
