March 14, 2011 Monday: First Week of Lent

Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time
during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death
and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes
place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar,
and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love. The death and
resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place
a long time ago, but an inner event that takes place in our heart when we are willing
to be attentive to it....

Lent offers a beautiful opportunity to discover the mystery of Christ within us.
It is a gentle but also demanding time. It is a time of solitude but also community,
it is a time of listening to the voice within, but also a time of paying attention
to other people's needs. It is a time to continuously make the passage to new inner
life as well as to life with those around us.
When we live Lent attentively and gently, then Easter can truly be a celebration
during which the full proclamation of the risen Christ will reverberate into the
deepest place of our being.

-Father Henri Nouwen