I had plans for this Lent. I even talked about them on “Catholic Women Lead,” the Catholic Women in Business podcast. I was going to focus hard on suffering well—on offering up my pain and on growing in virtue through it.
Then, a big project sidetracked me, along with a great deal of anxiety going along with it (I wrote about the latter a couple of weeks ago). I got caught up in my ego and my ambition (plus some legitimate hard work), and I kind of forgot it was Lent a lot of the time.
I had felt called to reread St. Thérèse’s “Story of a Soul” over Lent. Reading it first the year I was both confirmed and diagnosed with fibromyalgia and CFS was foundational to my understanding of suffering and pain, but I needed to revisit that understanding. I started rereading it the first week of Lent and haven’t picked it up since.
I already pray a daily Rosary, so I committed to only praying the Sorrowful Mysteries this Lent. This commitment is one I have kept—but have I spent the appropriate time and silence really meditating on them? By and large, the answer is no.
I’m recommitting to Lent during the Triduum, as much as I can, and I plan on celebrating the Resurrection on Sunday to the best of my ability. I’m also giving myself some grace—I have chronic illness I’m struggling with, some anxieties that go along with it, and am parenting a toddler in the midst of co-leading an organization and trying to write as much as I feel called to. I have a lot on my plate. I know that God is patient and merciful and that every time I return to him, he welcomes me with open arms.
So, here I am—and I’m sharing with you in case you, too, didn’t honor Lent the way that you planned. Maybe things that were out of your control waylaid you, or maybe you just fell off the wagon. Either way, every moment is an opportunity to start again, and Easter is the best of those moments.
(Don’t miss the new episode of “Catholic Women Lead,” in which Bridget Busacker of Managing Your Fertility and I dream about a future of work that honors women’s bodies the way God made them.)
What I Read and Listened to This Week:
A good follow-up to our latest podcast episode is this interview with Leah Libresco Sargeant on the Natural Womanhood podcast, focused on what our society needs to do to better accommodate women’s bodies.
Meg Hunter-Kilmer wrote a beautiful reflection for Unleash the Gospel on some saints to meditate with through the rest of Holy Week and into Easter.
Along the same lines, this blog post by Denise Trull on Theology of Home was a beautiful imaginative meditation on Jesus’ dinner in Bethany with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.
As someone who does volunteer work advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, I have been so interested lately in learning about Venerable Jerome Lejeune, the geneticist who discovered the cause of Down syndrome, who made some big career sacrifices in order to advocate for the lives of unborn children with Down syndrome (who are aborted at alarmingly high rates). This two-parter from Word on Fire shares more about his life and work.
Book Recommendations:
“Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood,” by Ashlee Gadd
I received this book as a gift. It was just released, and wow! did I need to read it this week. It’s beautiful—the writing and the book itself (gorgeous design, and Gadd is a gifted photographer as well as writer)—and I know I’ll be returning to it in the future for much-needed encouragement.“The Littlest Viking,” by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Isabel Roxas
This was a library checkout, and it’s one I’ll be buying if my daughter ever has a younger sibling. It was a creative, fun, and sweet approach to tackling the “no longer an only child” phenomenon.