Lent

Recently I read these words and found them to be instructive and interesting...Every year in springtime a familiar ritual is repeated. Hundreds of grown men who have played baseball all their lives head to warmer climates in Florida and Arizona to practice the fundamentals of baseball for about six weeks.

Men who grew up with a bat and glove have instructors who teach them again how to bat, throw, pitch and field the ball. Day after day, for weeks on end, these men who get paid millions of dollars to play the game of baseball go back to the basics.

Hitting, fielding, running the bases-all the things that would seem like second nature to the players get their renewed attention. Every phase of the game is studied all over again. To some folks spring training seems like a waste of time. If they've played baseball all their lives, why don't they just take the field, have someone sing the National Anthem, have the umpire yell, "play ball!" and get started.

Why spring training every year?

If you ask the player why they head to spring training every year they'll assure you its not because they have forgotten what to do.

It's so they'll get better at what baseball players do. It's a return to the basics to get them ready for the long season ahead; so they'll be prepared; so they'll be able to give their best at what they've devoted their lives to doing.

In the Church, every year as spring approaches we begin the Lenten journey again. Not because we are novices and must be taught the basics for the first time, but because whoever we are, these are the basics that will sustain us for the long season ahead. These are the same fundamentals we rehearse year after year, for they are what makes us strong and prepared for the rigorous days to come.

You probably have already seen our Catholic brothers and sisters with the gray mark in the shape of the cross on their forehead.

In the early church ashes were sprinkled on the head of the penitents symbolically announcing their sorrow for sin.

I long to be a serious pilgrim who desires growth and a deepening journey with Him.

Someone said it this way..."Lent is the Gospel in motion...convincing, convicting and empowering the pilgrim with an invitation to journey.

I want the Gospel to be "in motion" in my life. To often I am enamored with the "emotion" of the Gospel when God is calling me to allow Him to move through me.

Lent is an invitation. Lent is a time to respond to His initiative. I want to RSVP ASAP...