Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Wisdom of Lent From a Medieval Mystic



I am zipping happily through my final book for this semester of my Spiritual Direction Internship. This one happens to be on the writings of my old pal John of the Cross.



As I was reading this morning, and practicing my discipline for lent of "being open to whatever message God wants to send to me this lent at whatever time, in whatever way; I came across a wonderful passage in the writings of this spiritual master that defines exactly why we Catholics choose to deny ourselves during these 40 days:




"Say 'no' to your desires, and you will discover what your heart really
desires. What makes you think your longings are God's longings?"



If we stop filling up on the "things" in our lives, then there is so much more room for God to enter in and take that space and do with it what He wills. How much better for us to find what it is that we really need by stripping away all those things that we only think we can't live without.



Make room for God this lent.



Pax

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