Blessing of Lenten Resolutions
By Sr. Susan Hutchens, Prioress
Given Tuesday, February 21st, 2023
I found a quote of Michelangelo recently which stated: “True painting is only the image of the perfection of God, a shadow of the pencil with which God paints a melody, a striving after harmony.”
I was struck by those last 4 words: “A Striving after Harmony.”
We strive after harmony in everything we do in life: those words might immediately connote music for us – solo singers and choirs are always striving for good harmony. However, striving after harmony is such a perfect way to look at so many things in our own lives.
For me, at that moment, it was a good definition of the meaning of Lent:
a time to stand back and look at my own life, and the life of the world, and to ask: what needs to be harmonized within me, in our home, in the world around us? I think often Lenten resolutions often grow out of that kind of thinking about ourselves.
During Lent perhaps:
we strive to get our own lives in harmony with God’s will for us at this time;
we strive to bring creation into harmony with all things living, as God so wished it to be in the beginning.
we strive to see the world’s people in harmony with the peace God desires among all the world’s people.
I ask: what am I, what are we, being called to see and to maybe change, to do differently in each of our own lives that will bring about greater harmony, not just for ourselves, but for others?
A harmony where others have food, water, and needs fulfilled;
A harmony where the earth can continue to thrive in union with all creation;
A harmony where all humanity can be treated equally in matters of justice and survival.
On Ash Wednesday we will begin again, as we do each year, this Lenten time of walking with Jesus to Jerusalem. Jesus knew what he was facing at the end of his journey. In hope, we believe that the end of our journey will ultimately be life everlasting. That is the meaning of Resurrection; that is the outcome of Easter. I pray this evening, that blessings emerge for each of us in this community during these Lenten days – blessings we might expect, but especially those which are unexpected.
May our Lenten resolutions aid us on our Lenten journeys, seeking always greater harmony with the love and life of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus, we ask God’s blessing upon all of our resolutions, carefully prepared in love. May God receive them with love, strengthen our resolve with faith, and lead us forward in hope to the joys of Easter.