Different Directions of Lent

Last Monday, March 14th, I received an email from a fellow Ursuline Sister, Sr. Mary Beisiegel, osu, who currently lives and ministers in St. Louis.

Sr. Mary writes:

Wanted to share a Lenten thought with you - heard this on Ash Wednesday at mass.

The three focuses of Lent - Alms giving; Prayer; Fasting - are 'directional' depending on what we need to work on.

Alms giving is sharing of ourselves - an outward direction.

Prayer is an upward direction - an invitation to work on our relationship with God.

Fasting - an inward direction - to work on what needs to be corrected/adjusted within us.

The priest further asked us to reflect on which direction was most in need of work in our personal lives as we began our Lenten exercise.

We are now in the second week of Lent and this keeps coming back to me.

What direction is in most need of work at this point in my life?

I need to spend some time thinking about it.

I absolutely love the different directions to turn my focus.

How about you?

Sr. Jeannie Humphries, osu