Dear Friends,
When you receive this issue of the Mountaineer, we will be close to or have just celebrated Laetare Sunday, allowing for rose colored vestments, altar flowers, and joyful music to encourage us through the remaining penitential days of Lent. The brutally cold weather experienced by many of us this winter is abating and perhaps we have emerged from a hibernation of self-concern to give more time attending to our neighbors, with an outward reach, an “alms-giving,” both monetary and in terms of time, to lonely or isolated brothers and sisters. And spending more time with the Lord in prayer, in solidarity with Him who fasted and prayed in the desert in preparation for His ultimate sacrifice on the cross.
Perhaps some things we have done or might do for the remaining weeks in Lent in living our consecrated secularity is being more patient or kind in stressful situations at work. We could also undertake what Pope Leo XIV calls a “practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor…refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves.”
Or in making a daily examen in the model of Ignatian spirituality, we might focus on gratitude for our vocations as well as asking ourselves how we are living or have lived our vows or promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience in various situations encountered during the day.
And finally, to demonstrate what is at the heart of the sacrifice of the cross, be willing to love and forgive on a daily basis. In these ways we will be ready to greet and praise the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday!
God bless,
Sue
