This weekend we celebrate the Third Sunday in Lent. That means we are almost half way there. How are we doing? How is it going with pruning of things we don’t need to do? And how is it going with adding of things that will bring us closer to God?
Lent is a time for us to grow closer to God. But one of the bigger issues that we run into is that our desires are not focused on God. We have desires for people, things and opportunities, but our desires are not for the Lord. We want things that aren’t good for us. We live by this, ‘That I should be happy.’ What if my happiness allows for me to stomp all over you to make me feel happy, is that right? See, we live in a society of emotion. We live for emotion. As long as my emotion is good, at least in society standards, then I am doing okay. Still, we should be sad if someone dies, we should be angry sometimes. Emotions aren’t necessarily good or bad. But we can get too focused on them. Jesus is where our focus should be, not on emotions, not on fulfilling the desires that don’t bring us closer to Him. So we need to have purified desires in order for us to serve Him. God wants to help us to have purified desires. Ask Him for help in this, because so often this is what is holding us back from growing closer to the Father. The Father wants us to desire Him more, and He wants us to ask Him for our desires to be healed. It is Lent, this is a time to work on this.
Pray for others who are journeying this Lent. Pray for their desires to be purified. We are in communion with each other, and we are responsible to help each other. So don’t forget to pray for your brothers and sisters during this Lenten journey.
Fr. Thomas P. Galarneault