Our Desire For God

Once in awhile, especially when we least expect it, God's grace explodes in us and the glimmer we have been experiencing in our relationship with him, becomes as bright as a shooting star, or to be au courant, a passing asteroid. Things we have taken for granted, or things we have seen as obstacles to a fruitful Lent become the very things that will help us draw closer to God during these sacred days. God helps us to see a beauty in the common that we've never noticed before, or see the good in people that has evaded our vision till now and stop judging the; or see our own past sins as steps to aligning us on the path toward God. Prayer becomes more honest conversation, more of a natural genuine exchange between the God whose main goal is our growth and well-being and our desire for him...as muddled and misdirected as it can sometimes be. This clarity brings us joy and consolation, and makes us more deeply appreciate Lent as time to spend in peace and confidence with God, rather than a time of disciplined deprivation, and nose-sharpening at the grindstone of penance. Sacrifices and "penances" cease to be ends in themselves, but gifts willingly offered as signs of our sincerity and genuine desire to be holy, to align our wills with God's, to let go of "our way" of approaching him, and simply open the doors to allow for his entrance. At the end of these forty days, a change of attitude and behavior should be evident if we shift into the gear that reaches deeply into our hearts, and lets our desire for him be receptive to his desire for us.
Bro. Rene