We are starting the 4th week of Lent, (and we are midway!) I’m going to check in with you about how the Lenten road is for you: and to encourage you to continue onwards… start again… or just start!

You are aware that I often quote from the writings of Thomas Merton.  Merton and I have travelled together for many decades now: he is a kindred Spirit and he is provocative in my life.  He’s not an easy read: often I disagree with him: but he’s a friend.

In “The Sign of Jonas”, my favourite text of his, I found this devastating insight into his Spiritual life.  Thomas, for those who don’t know, was a Monk; he was a priest: most of all, he was a writer. He was prophetic man, and his voice that was influential in the life of Christianity in the 1960’s and the next 3 decades.  He  is raw and honest.  In  his writings, we see his wrestle with God, the Church, his vocation, and his very personhood.

Listen to this: “Last night it snowed again.  The sky looks like lead.  It is about as dark as my own mind.  I see nothing, I understand nothing.  I as sorry for complaining and making a disturbance. All I want is to please God and to do God’s will.”

This is the Christian Pathway, and it’s rugged travelling.

In her latest book: “Re-Wilding Prayer”, Sally Douglas reminds us of this dangerous encounter we make with the Holy, Holy, Holy.  She says:

“The experience of abiding with the divine is not an invitation into a sunset-tinged state of bliss.  This is not a relationship in which we will be constantly affirmed or consoled, nor is the spiritual life a competition.  Christian discipleship is not a linear progression from one revelation to another as we reach ever higher plains…” 

During the week I caught up with a friend whose husband has just died.  He had early on-set dementia journey for 13 years.  It’s been 13 years of saying good-bye: and his partner is honest enough to be furious with God about that. But then they told me, just in a short sentence, that when he died, he was holding his cross…  Not out of fear or need.  But because he loved the Lord.

Picking up on the story of the woman at the well from last week, Donal Neary, Irish priest in the Society of the Jesuits, notes the following,

“In the depths of the well, when we are in love, plain, death, decision, joy, or grief, we find God.  God is near when we are near to ourselves, even in shame and sin.” 

This is Christian Spirituality can hold us; help us; and heal us.

This is a Jesus who is wholly present, with us. As we are.  Making us Whole.

We thirst for meaning.  And at the bottom of the well we are all equal.  And in the waters, there is mercy.  The Living Water of Life.

Regardless of the prior weeks: Lent is a gift to us, and I encourage and invite you to get wild in prayer.

Get wild in reading the Gospel. Get wild in all those practices you love that draw you into the wonder, of the love of God in Jesus.  Jesus our friend.  Our companion.  Our Wisdom.  The one who saves.  You’ll  find peace for your soul.