During the season of Lent, Joan Chittister will provide a daily reflection to online readers, a kind of
Monastery Almanac for Lent.
Monday, March 23 — Benedict was a disciplined man. He knew the value of establishing a holy routine
and following it. He set up his communities around a regime of work, prayer, reflective reading and
adequate rest and nourishment. He expected a bit of each, every single day and promised his followers
that if they were faithful to such a routine that they would “come to the love that casts out fear” of
God. Which of those elements of life are you lacking now? Do that one for this week of Lent.
Tuesday, March 24 — Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
in 1980. He wrote: “The bible has a very meaningful expression: the Spirit makes all things new. We are
those who grow old, and we want everything done to our aged standards. The Spirit is never old: the
Spirit is always young.” Romero emptied himself of the need to control time and change. Lent says start
again. Will you?
Wednesday, March 25 — The Feast of the Annunciation. Mary was filled with Jesus. An ancient saying
reminds us: “Music needs the hollowness of the flute; Letters, the blankness of the page; Light, the
void called a window; Holiness, the absence of the self.” We see emptiness as a loss; but emptiness is
the only thing that makes new life possible in us.
Thursday, March 26 — The birthday of the poet Robert Frost. He wrote: “No tears in the writer, no
tears in the reader.” That’s good advice for all of us. What isn’t in us, we can’t give to anyone else. But
if we are full only of ourselves, we are cutting ourselves off from others. It’s simple: if we want to make
a connection with other people, we are going to have to empty life of its obsession with ourselves.
That’s what Jesus did; that’s what Lent is all about—giving ourselves for the other.
Friday, March 27 — “All of the significant battles are waged within the self,” Koff wrote. Lent is that
time-out period in life when we allow ourselves to think about the battles we are waging within
ourselves at the present time. Why? In the hope that this time we can win something from the struggle
that makes us more spiritually adult than we have ever been before.
Saturday, March 28 — Lent is not about becoming “perfect.” The concept of perfection is a trick
played upon the spiritually unwary to make them think they can arrive at a point beyond which they
need not go. No, Lent is about naming our demons so that we can proceed despite them. Which of
your flaws have taught you the most about life?
March 29 — Fifth Sunday of Lent
Today’s Gospel reads: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.” That
puts it squarely: Everybody has to be willing to allow one form of themselves to die so that what they
are really meant to be can come to life. Or, as Lewis Carroll put it, “There is no use going back to
yesterday for I was a different person then.” It is the willingness to develop into something new, to see
new dimensions of life, that is freedom of spirit.
Monastery Almanac for Lent.
Monday, March 23 — Benedict was a disciplined man. He knew the value of establishing a holy routine
and following it. He set up his communities around a regime of work, prayer, reflective reading and
adequate rest and nourishment. He expected a bit of each, every single day and promised his followers
that if they were faithful to such a routine that they would “come to the love that casts out fear” of
God. Which of those elements of life are you lacking now? Do that one for this week of Lent.
Tuesday, March 24 — Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
in 1980. He wrote: “The bible has a very meaningful expression: the Spirit makes all things new. We are
those who grow old, and we want everything done to our aged standards. The Spirit is never old: the
Spirit is always young.” Romero emptied himself of the need to control time and change. Lent says start
again. Will you?
Wednesday, March 25 — The Feast of the Annunciation. Mary was filled with Jesus. An ancient saying
reminds us: “Music needs the hollowness of the flute; Letters, the blankness of the page; Light, the
void called a window; Holiness, the absence of the self.” We see emptiness as a loss; but emptiness is
the only thing that makes new life possible in us.
Thursday, March 26 — The birthday of the poet Robert Frost. He wrote: “No tears in the writer, no
tears in the reader.” That’s good advice for all of us. What isn’t in us, we can’t give to anyone else. But
if we are full only of ourselves, we are cutting ourselves off from others. It’s simple: if we want to make
a connection with other people, we are going to have to empty life of its obsession with ourselves.
That’s what Jesus did; that’s what Lent is all about—giving ourselves for the other.
Friday, March 27 — “All of the significant battles are waged within the self,” Koff wrote. Lent is that
time-out period in life when we allow ourselves to think about the battles we are waging within
ourselves at the present time. Why? In the hope that this time we can win something from the struggle
that makes us more spiritually adult than we have ever been before.
Saturday, March 28 — Lent is not about becoming “perfect.” The concept of perfection is a trick
played upon the spiritually unwary to make them think they can arrive at a point beyond which they
need not go. No, Lent is about naming our demons so that we can proceed despite them. Which of
your flaws have taught you the most about life?
March 29 — Fifth Sunday of Lent
Today’s Gospel reads: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.” That
puts it squarely: Everybody has to be willing to allow one form of themselves to die so that what they
are really meant to be can come to life. Or, as Lewis Carroll put it, “There is no use going back to
yesterday for I was a different person then.” It is the willingness to develop into something new, to see
new dimensions of life, that is freedom of spirit.
LOVE THAT CASTS OUT FEAR
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