“To live is to be slowly born.”


Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Sunflower Seeds

Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Look Out for Lent

We’ve just concluded the Christmas Season and are only a few days into Ordinary Time, but I’m already behind the 8 ball. When studying for a masters in liturgy, I was taught to prepare a whole year at one time, starting with Holy Week and working forward and backwards from that point. I suppose full-time liturgists do this, but I am limited to preparing one season at a time a couple months in advance. Here in mid-January I start looking at the Sundays of Lent and the Sacred Triduum. Fortunately, we are in Year A when the Sunday gospels are the same for everyone—parishioners and those involved in OCIA. On the First Sunday of Lent we might ask “What are the temptations in 2026 that might have been less pronounced in 2024 or 2025?” On the Second Sunday we may ask, “How does God manifest himself now?” Then on the Third Sunday we may ask “How does God take away our thirst? For what do we thirst?” While the Church Year cycles around every three years, every year is a new year, a new chance to live the Gospel. Perhaps the new chance is our call to conversion.

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