Repent And Believe

Each Lent, we embark on a journey of recovery and discovery. We recover by renewing our sacraments—particularly our Baptismal promises and receiving the graces we need through the Eucharist and Penance and Reconciliation. We are also setting aside old habits—our vices, our distractedness—and recovering something foundational: our relationship with the Lord who suffered, and died and rose again for us.

But there is also discovery in Lent. Like clearing the winter detritus from the garden only to discover the scented herbs already poking up from the earth or the daffodils sending up their graceful, twirling leaves, Lent is our spiritual spring of discovery. Here we awaken to a new appreciation of God’s boundless love for us, and his offer of mercy, if only we will accept it. Just as in spring, nature is transformed; this is an opportunity for us to be spiritually transformed by an ever-deeper appreciation of the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.