“God is my Home”: Reflections on the Lenten Season
Every year, we welcome a number of students into the Church at the Easter Vigil. As part of their preparation, the catechumen will walk with a Newman Center leader, often a fellow student, who will pray with them and help them in their understanding of the faith. In this blog, we bring you reflections on the Lenten season from one of these pairs of students.
My name is Averi Jefferson, and this Lenten season is unlike any experience I have ever had before. As I am preparing my heart for the death and Resurrection of our Lord, I am also preparing to enter the Church. At the Easter Vigil, here at the Newman Center, I will be getting confirmed and receiving my first Communion. It fills me with much anticipation and awe as I go through Lent with a commitment to deepen my faith with the Lord.
What is Lent? This has been a question asked to me my entire life, but through this Lenten season I have come to contemplate this question even deeper. My name is Mary Kowal and over this past year I have been blessed with leading a wonderful student, Averi Jefferson, through her journey to find the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist through the Catholic Church. She will be received into full communion with the Church through her Confirmation and first Communion this Easter.
Lent is the perfect time to complete OCIA. As I come close to joining the Church, I view Lent as a time for preparation. As Easter approaches, I find this to be a sacred opportunity to reflect on how my sins separate me from God and to accept His forgiveness and grace. Lent is a time to pause and slow down in the busyness of life and to listen to the voice of Christ as He calls us to follow Him more faithfully. In this season of Lent, I am discovering the significance of this decision of mine to join the Catholic Church.
Averi’s devotion and drive to learn about the faith has taught me more about what it means to be Catholic as I become her sponsor and continue to walk with her through life. In asking the question of “What is Lent?” this year I have come to more fully understand the answer. Lent is a time for penance. It is a time to show God that we are sorry for our sins and that we are striving for good. Lent is also a preparation time for the most important part of our redemption story, the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through sin we are spiritually dead, but Christ sacrifices Himself for us to give us new life through His Resurrection. We can receive this sacrifice every day through the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, which is what brought Averi to see the truth and beauty of the Catholic Church. We are the living representations of Christ in the World and our mission is to bring others to see Him.
A few weeks before Lent, Mary asked me to contemplate the question that God asks us everyday, “Who do you say I am?” As I have prayed and pondered this question, I have arrived at the simplest, but most powerful truth: God is my home. He is my refuge, my safe haven, and my comfort. Without Him, there would be no purpose, no direction, and no meaning to my life. He truly saved me at my lowest hour, and for that, I am forever grateful. Because of this I want to devote my life to my Savior. Throughout my years of searching for that relationship, I found that the path I walk in the Catholic Church leads me closest to His heart. I am so blessed that there are amazing people who have opened their arms with a warm smile, to help me grow on my journey. This is only the beginning of a lifelong commitment to a relationship with God. And I am ready, with a heart full of gratitude and hope, to take that step forward into the life He has called me to.
Easter is a wonderful way to finish this time of penance and preparation, and the best place to receive new members into the Church. These people, like Averi, are making a life-long commitment to learning about and sharing the Catholic faith with the world, and this new life is starting in unison with Jesus’s Resurrection, which is absolutely beautiful. I could not be more blessed to have been chosen to lead Averi through OCIA and become her sponsor. This Lent we need to look for more of what brings us closer to a relationship with God and remove what diverts our attention away from Him and to the things of the earth. As stated by Saint Faustina Kowalska, “Easter is a season of profound transformation, a time when the old gives way to the new and the broken is made whole. It is a reminder that God’s power is made perfect in weakness, and that His grace is sufficient for all our needs.”
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