The Barn at the Homestead

The Barn at the Homestead

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Lent

     I just came in from cleaning the barn after several weeks of really cold, snowy/icy weather in Mississippi!  The goats seemed to do very well; much easier on them than me! I chuckled when I realized the word with which I chose to travel this year is enough.  Enough winter already! The goats seemed grateful for a better smelling barn and much cleaner and fresher hay. And I feel much better for the fresh air and sunshine.  
      Cleaning the barn had me reflecting; the season of Lent is much like mucking out the barn.  It's time to clean out the clutter from our interior lives to make room for the fresh and new.  A priest friend of mine once told me that he gave up boiled okra and watermelon rind pickles each year for Lent.  He said it with a smile and a wink, I might add. He said that Lent really was about so much more--more about taking stock of our lives.  I believe it's the time for checking out how we are loving God and how we are loving our neighbor.  Like cleaning the barn, I have some mucking out to do in my own interior.
     This Lent has found me spending time with the Penitential Psalms; reading them, meditating on them, studying them and listening to music that's been composed in various genres. We don't spend much time talking about sin anymore; but I am reminded once again by cleaning out the barn, sin exists, and it is only by God's grace that I'm forgiven.  And loved.
     So, enough of winter! Spring is coming.  And Lent is the time that we prepare for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! Blessed be!