The Lent of 2020 will remain in my memory for a very long time. It is the Lent in which we as a community of believers “gave up” a lot of things we never even considered giving up. Things we pretty much took for granted. Things such as physically gathering as a community to celebrate Sunday and weekday Masses, Stations of the Cross and other devotionals, Holy Week Liturgies; PLUS so many are having to give up their jobs, going to school, being with family and friends, recreation and entertainment, traveling, and so much more. This truly is a different Lent. It is a Lent in which I have had to embrace “different.” It is different to pray at Mass sitting at home in my pj’s with disheveled hair. It is different to hold a staff meeting sitting alone at my desk using video conferencing. It is different not to gather as family for a meal, but to use the various technological means to stay connected.
From all of this, I have come to a greater appreciation of what spiritual connection means. I may not be in the same physical space but that does not disconnect me from those that used to be around me. It calls me to a greater connection. A calling that has always been there. Maybe something that I took for granted and never truly appreciated. A gift just waiting to be fully unwrapped and used to its full extent. So as the world and I navigate through these difficult and different times, I hope to use this different Lent to be different, to learn different, and to embrace different. So as I pray with the Mass being offered on saskatoonmass.com or pray with Pope Francis online, I open my spiritual being to unite with all the other souls throughout the world praying. It is this image, this reality, that I am not alone, but I am united with the many souls of this world and of heaven, and with my loving God, gives great consolation and hope to my most inner being for this is not a bond, a unity, that can easily be broken, but it now is being strengthened in the different. And this different too shall pass. And all shall be well. It will probably be different, but through the grace of God, it will be well and it will be better.
