Don't Give Up this Lenten Season, Give In.

I was reading up on the 2021 Lent Season and how others are feeling about it and came across an article about what America’s editors are giving up this year.
I really thought about the term “Give Up”. We’ve given up so much in the past year. Time spent with loved ones, jobs, school. Our children have had to give up time to be social, which is so important. Many, like myself, have lost a loved one. Why should we now feel like we must give up chocolate or coffee?

This year I’ve decided to Give In. I am giving in to meditation, to peace, to prayer, to making ammends with people and the past. I will give in to the path God has laid before me instead of fighting every step. I will be looking out the window and seeing the beauty of what the day brings.

This particular editor’s writing stuck with me. Mainly for what was written about Pope John Paul I and what he was taught as a boy.

“Lord, take me as I am, with my faults and with my sins, but make me become as you wish.”

Everything has changed in this year of Covid-19, including our spiritual lives. For some, it meant holding fast; while for others, it has been a time of unmooring. For the great majority of us, the experience has been somewhere in-between. For Lent, the usual practices don’t seem to apply, as so much has been involuntarily “given up.” What can we do? When Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani) was a boy, his mother taught him this prayer, the sentiments of which he adhered to throughout his life: “Lord, take me as I am, with my faults and with my sins, but make me become as you wish.” Perhaps we could make this our prayer as well. In it, our faults are offered up to God along with the good that we do. We may not know what our efforts lead up to, but we can trust God will make something beautiful out of them. < Joseph McAuley, assistant editor

I am not without fault or sin. None of us are. But with faith, hope, and love (you know the saying), we can be better humans. Lent is a time for prayer, reconciliation, renewal, & repentance.

Right now, many of us are trying to nurse ourselves back to help. Our mental, emotional, and physical spirits have been broken. The 40 days of Lent are meant to renew our spirit. Give in to that renewal, to the healing that needs to happen to move forward.