We are into the second week of Lent already. So far the biggest penance has been putting up with the weather and all the cold, snow and blustery winds. But that has been a penance since early December! Now it is only ongoing...
Yet, as I have said so often over the years: Lent is something that happens to me. In other words, it is my attitude toward what enters into my life on a day to day basis that determines whether something is penance, pleasure, pain or passion. Life happens each day. How do I react to it? How do I welcome, or fight it? How do I let it affect me?
I often recall the words of St Teresa of Avila who said: "It is heaven all the way to heaven; it is hell all the way to hell." What she meant was that we decide whether what confronts us in life is positive or negative, whether it is life-giving or not. Our attitude, which is determined by our own decision, ultimately creates heaven or hell for us. Nobody else is responsible for our outlook on life, nor for our attitude in walking through it. We can't control the circumstances of our life, but we definitely can control what impact they have upon us. That control lies completely within the power of our choice of attitude.
How is your Lent going?
