Inspired by Sister Laurentia John’s book: “The Way of Benedict: Eight Blessings for Lent.” I’ll be reflecting on a different blessing each week in Lent through the lens of the Scripture readings and of the Rule of St Benedict.
The blessing for the first week of Lent is beginning, an obvious one for Ash Wednesday. Chaim Potok’s book “In the beginning”, opens with this phrase that gets repeated again and again throughout the book, “all beginnings are hard…” His words remind me of a truth I often forget.
However much our beginnings overflow with promise, hope and possibility, and they can also be hard. Beginnings don’t come with guarantees. Each beginning requires us to step out in trust into the unknown, that is challenging and unsettling.
Ash Wednesday leaves me both aware of the challenge of beginning and offers a blessing which gives me the courage to take the first step. The source and the purpose of our Lent journey is love. We begin it as a response to the call of love that we hear from the Prophet Joel:
“Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart…”
As he calls us to turn back to the true source of our being his words remind us that we are first and foremost made by and for love. His words are echoed in the Prologue of the Rule of St Benedict:
“Listen carefully to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you: welcome it and faithfully put it into practice.”
However hard that first step into Lent might feel we carry with it the blessing of the love that called us and that will sustain us all through the journey.
What blessing sustains you as we begin our journey through Lent?
