As a Catholic, today I celebrate Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. In my eyes, this is the greatest season within the church. Although Christmas gets credit most of the time as the most wonderful time of the year, Lent tops my chart.
Why? You may ask.
Lent is a time for self-reflection and refocus. The world today seems too often to be focused on "self" - putting yourself first. What makes you happy? What do you truly want or desire? What do you plan to do with your life? Telling us that we deserve this or that - we deserve to put ourselves first.
It may seem like Lent is an extension of this, but in reality, it's completely the opposite. We look at our "self" to see if God's creation is the "reflection" looking back at us. We all have a purpose and a calling to not only be who God intended but to share that journey with God through prayer. Some of us are still searching for our intended reflection and others know what it should be but need to focus on refining that person. The church gives us guidelines on how to direct that focus: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Unfortunately, sometimes things get lost because we focus more on the customs around them (like giving something up), instead of the true intentions.
My Lenten journey is different every year. My relationship with God is just like any other relationship, it has its ebbs and flows, but the important thing is to always come back to the basics and try to do my part to nurture it and continue to grow into the person God intended me to be. That's the beauty of Lent, it's a time set aside to do just that!
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