Paula said if you did this all the way, it may prove to be the very antidote you've been seeking.
Conversion means being liberated by God's grace so that we can at last follow the intimate spiritual aspirations that have long been unheeded, neglected, or frustrated. It is the beginning of the journey towards a fulfillment, a journey powered by the spiritual quest but one which profoundly influences and transforms every sphere of human activity and experience.
-- Michael Casey
I have loved the recalibration this year's Lent has born in me. Not that I'm all better or have become someone else. But, I have been recalibrated to what makes me alive to who I really am. And, I am grateful for it.
A few final thoughts from the wonderful little book I've referenced throughout this season:
Just as Jesus humbly bore his cross through the winding streets of Jerulsalem, I must be willing to carry the burden of myself as I am. Instead of fantasizing about my special gifts or fine character, I must lay aside self-importance. I must stop catering to my own whims, putting my own needs before the needs of others, or taking my own righteousness as a given. I must learn to see myself as I am: neither too high or too low.
...
That renunciation of my former way of life causes suffering, both for me and for those who love me but who are incapable of understanding the journey I am on. No matter how I'd like to avoid that stark reality, what I sign up for when I accept the faith is the quiet bearing of pain. Some of the worst of it has to do with the total restructuring of the person I've come to identify as myself.
...
Genuine transformation requires obedience to a power greater than myself.
...
Despite my predilection toward a strictly private relationship with God, I see that we do not and cannot meet him totally on our own. I realize that I am accompanied on this difficult spiritual journey not only by my living brothers and sisters in Christ but also by countless generations of believers who have already made the transition from earthly existence to the "land of likeness" -- the heavenly home that Jesus went to prepare for us. No longer merely an individual, I have been engrafted into the Body of Christ.
...
Our only way of thanking him is to offer back what he has so generously given: our consecrated selves. We are made to bring peace to the war-torn, sustenance to the starving, hope to the desperate, love to the despised and the alone, and the good news of salvation to the ignorant and the cynical.
...
This task sounds daunting...so he reminds us of who he made us to be:
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain that cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Mt 5:14-16)
Humility is what allows us to take on this magnificent mission without trembling.
-- Paula Huston, simplifying THE SOUL
Amen. We are re-born.
