With the blessed ashes still fresh on our forehead's memory, we enter into the Desert of Choices. The ashes image our mortality and vulnerability; our temptations remind us of our need for God's saving presence; the empty holy water fonts, remind us of our longing for the great rewards of a baptism well-lived. "Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more." This tells us even more about God's desire for our holiness and wholeness.

Perhaps we ought to love our temptations. Love them as our mirror on who or what we devalue, under-use, or abuse. Every devilish temptation tells us about God's unconditional love and makes us grace-worthy of the peace of self-acceptance. Temptation is all about the struggle for integrity and the necessity for listening to Christ's prophetic voice over all others. Temptations simultaneously make us face our Genesis roots and God's Original Grace.

Lent is the time for taking spiritual stock of our journey. Like Lent, these Chapter days lead us through our Desert of Choices, where God hopes we'll "set ourselves on fire" again and again. Lent and Chapter are our privileged times to look into the spiritual mirror to see who we are and whose we are ~ and who we can become in Original Grace. Let's not give into the temptation of being or doing anyting less.  I wanna see us be brave!

--Janis McQuade SSJ

 print