REMEMBER (a thought for Lent)

February 15th, 2021 Posted in Uncategorized

In my growing up and middle adult years, the message of Lent was clear and unambiguous. As we were marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads, we were told, “Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Fragile and mortal, we are made from earth and destined to return to the clay from which God formed us.

It is a truth we need to accept . . . but not the WHOLE truth. We are, indeed, dust, but not ONLY that. For God has breathed his own life into us and has made us so much more than dust. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins says we are also “immortal diamond.” Both truths are to be accepted and honored.

So, this Lent, I hope to give myself to the discipline of remembering — to recalling the times when I have been blessed with hope and grace, when some of my dreams have not worked out but also when they have beyond my wildest expectations. I want to remember the times when I have struggled with my faith as well as when my faith was the only thing that kept me afloat. And I wish to remember people who have formed me by their love and whom I have loved in return.

To live each day with time set aside for remembering what I am, who I am, and whose I am would be, I think, a fine way to spend Lent and prepare for the joy of Easter.

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