During the season of Lent, Joan Chittister will provide a daily reflection to online readers, a kind of
Monastery Almanac for Lent.
Monday, March 2 — The starkness of the community chapel—the large wooden cross, the vacancy of
the planters, the loss of colors, the sense of barrenness that loss of the familiar brings—are simply
external reminders of the internal emptiness that develops when we barter the real richness of life for
the trinkets of living.
Tuesday, March 3 — Today the church remembers Katherine Drexel. Katherine, the foundress of the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, was a Philadelphia heiress who
established 49 foundations, including Xavier University in New Orleans. This woman didn’t let the empty
places of life go by—she filled them. What empty places of life are you filling with the will of God?
Wednesday, March 4 — The feast of St. Casimir, a Polish prince who led an austere life. Casimir emptied
himself out so that others could be filled and was known by the people of the time as “brother and
defender of the poor.” What name would your neighbors give you?
Thursday, March 5 — “What is love?” Victor Hugo wrote. “I have met in the streets a very poor young
man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars
through his soul.” If you lost everything you owned tomorrow; if your whole house were emptied out,
would there be anything in life that you loved enough to maintain the stars in your soul?
Friday, March 6 — Michelangelo, born this day in 1495, brought beauty to a morally empty world. Lent
is the period of life in which we look for beauty again. Michelangelo teaches that it is nowhere if it is
not within us.
Saturday, March 7 — Once upon a time, an ancient story tells, the master had a visitor who came to
inquire about Zen. But instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own concerns and giving
his own thoughts. After awhile the master served tea. He poured tea into his visitor’s cup until it was
full and then he kept on pouring. Finally the visitor could not bear it any longer. “Don’t you see that
my cup is full?” he said. “It’s not possible to get any more in.” “Just so,” the master said, stopping at
last. “And like this cup, you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen
unless you first empty your cup?”
A monastic Lent is the process of emptying our cups so that we can fill ourselves with the things that
really count in life.
March 8 — Second Sunday of Lent
On this second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel tells us that Jesus was transfigured before his disciples and
they began to see him as they had never seen him before. William Blake wrote: “We are put on earth a
little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” The Transfiguration was the eruption in
Jesus of “the beams of love.” Has anyone ever seen such an eruption in you?
Monastery Almanac for Lent.
Monday, March 2 — The starkness of the community chapel—the large wooden cross, the vacancy of
the planters, the loss of colors, the sense of barrenness that loss of the familiar brings—are simply
external reminders of the internal emptiness that develops when we barter the real richness of life for
the trinkets of living.
Tuesday, March 3 — Today the church remembers Katherine Drexel. Katherine, the foundress of the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, was a Philadelphia heiress who
established 49 foundations, including Xavier University in New Orleans. This woman didn’t let the empty
places of life go by—she filled them. What empty places of life are you filling with the will of God?
Wednesday, March 4 — The feast of St. Casimir, a Polish prince who led an austere life. Casimir emptied
himself out so that others could be filled and was known by the people of the time as “brother and
defender of the poor.” What name would your neighbors give you?
Thursday, March 5 — “What is love?” Victor Hugo wrote. “I have met in the streets a very poor young
man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars
through his soul.” If you lost everything you owned tomorrow; if your whole house were emptied out,
would there be anything in life that you loved enough to maintain the stars in your soul?
Friday, March 6 — Michelangelo, born this day in 1495, brought beauty to a morally empty world. Lent
is the period of life in which we look for beauty again. Michelangelo teaches that it is nowhere if it is
not within us.
Saturday, March 7 — Once upon a time, an ancient story tells, the master had a visitor who came to
inquire about Zen. But instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own concerns and giving
his own thoughts. After awhile the master served tea. He poured tea into his visitor’s cup until it was
full and then he kept on pouring. Finally the visitor could not bear it any longer. “Don’t you see that
my cup is full?” he said. “It’s not possible to get any more in.” “Just so,” the master said, stopping at
last. “And like this cup, you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen
unless you first empty your cup?”
A monastic Lent is the process of emptying our cups so that we can fill ourselves with the things that
really count in life.
March 8 — Second Sunday of Lent
On this second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel tells us that Jesus was transfigured before his disciples and
they began to see him as they had never seen him before. William Blake wrote: “We are put on earth a
little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” The Transfiguration was the eruption in
Jesus of “the beams of love.” Has anyone ever seen such an eruption in you?
TIME TO LOOK FOR BEAUTY, AGAIN
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