My Lenten Journey 2022

My Lenten journey started when Father Julius said that Lent is not only a time to give something up. “Do Something.” Mother Teresa said “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

We don’t know what in life is going on with each other; every day: spouse, job, kids, house, car, and miscellaneous and then the next day, again. With this Lenten journey, I have put my focus on making sure everyone that I come across gets a greeting of kindness.

In the beginning, I thought, “could this tiny gesture make a difference?” It turns out that this tiny gesture is two-fold. I was leaving the gymnasium to go to the church for the Stations of the Cross and there sat the sweetest man. I said hello and he looked so surprised that I was speaking to him. Him, a child of God, was hearing God’s love through me, another child of God. I hope he knows that he brought as much joy to me as I tried to give to him. The smallest of things give so much joy.

I challenge everyone to take a minute walking in or out of a store, your job, your school, library, laundromat, your church, and look at your brother or sister and say hello, hi, how are you. Jesus carried that cross for us so we could go out and carry crosses for others. Thank you Jesus Christ for making me feel seen, heard, and important through giving joy to others. My mom, who passed in 1991, once told me that people would tell her that she was weird because she would say hello to strangers. I am proud to be walking this Lenten journey with the “weird”.

God Bless,
Lisa J. Parishioner