Seeing Lent with new eyes

(These three articles preview the Spiritual Wellness Day, March 3, 9 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., at St. Ambrose parish in Latham. Co-sponsored by the Albany diocesan Consultation Center and St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, the day includes a keynote and workshops. For information and cost, call 489-4431.)

When Sister Eleanor Guerin, RSM, was young, she dreaded Lent. It would approach when she was tired from the winter, she said, which had its own demands and sacrifices.

But after she read an article likening the 40 days of Lent to the 40-day retreat before catechumens were baptized in the early Church, her view changed.

"When you go on a retreat, you try to pray to be open to the spirit of God leading you, and that switched the whole emphasis of Lent for me," Sister Eleanor said. "The most important piece is to pray and to ask God to lead me where I go. Then we can get into the fasting and the almsgiving. Fasting doesn't have to be from foodstuffs. It could be fasting from anger or from negative thinking."

Sister Eleanor, pastoral associate for senior services and outreach for St. Vincent de Paul parish in Albany, will speak on "Lent: The 40-Day Retreat" during Spiritual Wellness Day.

She will use music, prayer and guided imagery to help participants discover a "renewed sense and excitement about their relationship with God and how God might be calling them."

She sees Lent is an opportunity to "be quiet and focused, and see where God wants to lead us in the development of our relationship with God and with people."

She said that quiet time for reflection can be found while driving, by shutting off the TV and by going for walks.

Seeing Lent as a retreat can mean "asking God for whatever graces we need to see that we're not doing this alone," she said. "If I realize that God is leading and guiding me, I'm going to see some things that are going to demand a change in my life.

"Letting go, that change of heart, that conversion -- that's painful. That's not fun. But it's going to be things that God is calling me to."

(2/22/07) [[In-content Ad]]