Words for the Weary Embracing the Lenten Season After a Challenging Pandemic Year by Ann Naffziger
Daily Reflections for Lent 2021 Words for the Weary Embracing the Lenten Season After a Challenging Pandemic Year by Ann Naffziger FEBRUARY 17 • ASH WEDNESDAY A Year Later Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. —Joel 2:12-13 Beginning Lent with its call to fasting, weeping, and mourning may not sound at all appealing to us this year. Since the coronavirus began sweeping across our country almost exactly a year ago, haven’t we done enough of that? Perhaps never in our lives have we fasted so much from hugging family members and physically touching our friends, from gathering together in book clubs, choirs, sports arenas, restaurants, and churches. Maybe you have lost a loved one, and you still can’t stop weeping. Even if you haven’t lost someone you know, our country and world are collectively mourning the pandemic’s death toll, the economic devastation it has created, and the political divisiveness it has spawned. Our hearts have been broken in so many ways this past year that perhaps God isn’t calling us to more mourning, weeping, and fasting this Lent. Maybe instead the invitation is to merely return to God with our entire hurting, weary selves. For Prayer: Take a few minutes today to imagine yourself simply being in God’s presence in whatever state you find yourself in. Allow God to be with you no matter what you are feeling. FEBRUARY 18 • THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Unexpected Graces What does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves? —Luke 9:25 Even though this past year has been difficult, it has also offered many graces.
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