Sr. Gill Goulding CJ is Professor Ordinarius Systematic Theology, Regis College, Senior Research Associate Von Hugel Institute St Edmund’s College University of Cambridge UK, and a Member of the Theological Commission Secretariat of the Synod, Rome. She was appointed by Cardinal Grech to the Theological Commission of Synod in April 2021. Sr. Gill was involved in the writing of the Preparatory Document, The Vademecum, and the Document for the Continental Stage and also took part in five of the North American Continental Sessions.
Lent is early this year. It seems only a short time ago that we were celebrating Christmas and now it is Ash Wednesday and we begin the ‘joyful season’ of Lent. Many times throughout the 40 days of Lent, the Church speaks of joy in the liturgy, illustrating by both the scriptures and prayer that Christian joy is about anticipating God’s presence. Lent is that time of waiting upon the Lord that Pope Francis calls us to amidst the frenetic activity of our daily lives. This waiting period is perhaps especially important this year immersed as the Church is in the synodal process and also in the year of preparatory prayer for the jubilee of 2025. Waiting is good for us the Holy Father insists because that waiting for God is part of our faith journey. To wait well we need to be attentive to those sometime unexpected ways that God reveals himself in our lives, often not with great drama but with those wee lifts of the heart as we perceive in a glimpse of kindness, beauty or truth the guiding spirit of God. By contrast “the worst thing that can happen to us is to let the heart fall asleep, to anesthetize the soul, to lock hope away in the dark corners of disappointment and resignation.”1
What helps us to stay awake? Here, the great triad of Lenten practices come to our aid. On Ash Wednesday before we receive the ashes on our foreheads we hear in the gospel the call to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This same gospel across centuries has challenged the people of God to conversion. On Ash Wednesday Pope Francis, as countless popes before him, will go to the great Dominican church on the Aventine Hill, Santa Sabina, a place where St. Thomas Aquinas himself had lived, to preside over the moving liturgy of Ash Wednesday as a sign that he too, the Pope and Bishop of Rome, is also a man in need of conversion. The occasion also reminds us how our faith is linked across generations of human beings who worshipped God and who desired a conversion that would lead them to a deeper encounter with Christ.
Our waiting needs to include a real attentiveness to prayer. We might ask what prayer? The prayer of the mass, clearly an important communal prayer. But what of our own personal prayer, do we pray and what for? Do we believe in the power of our prayers? Do we pray earnestly and perseveringly, not just for our own needs and family friends who are sick or in need? Do we expand our prayer in a wider way? Every Sunday since the invasion of Ukraine, after the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis has spoken of the need to pray for the people of that country and from October last year he raised the situation in Gaza and other war-torn parts of the world. Do we keep these people in our hearts and in our prayer? Would Lent be a time to do that?
Fasting is often in fashion when people want to lose weight but the fasting that appears in scripture is generally associated with some positive action. From what will we fast this year? Will it be from social media on some day or days of the week? What will be put in its place, a time of silent contemplation, a sensitivity to the needs of others in our family and among our friends? Will we fast from the spirit of criticism that can so easily bring others down and replace that with a smile that can encourage others? In our place of work will we fast from the attitude that implies we are always too busy and instead be attentive to making sure there is water in the hot water jug for the next person to make a cup of tea or coffee? There are a myriad of small possibilities that can make life better for others.
Almsgiving can be tricky when, as many students are, you are living on a tight budget. But the time and attentiveness to the person on the street to whom we may occasionally give money, or the anonymous donation, made known only to God, can be possibilities. When we do not have money to give, we do have time. Even in the busiest schedule there can be the possibilities to give time attentively to others, to the colleague burdened with sick children or parents; to the one who has suffered a disappointment; to the student who is homesick or seriously struggling against mental health issues. Time is often the greatest gift we can give to anyone. The gospel witness is that Jesus always had time for others and as disciples we are called to do the same.
All these practices lead us back to that essential waiting upon the Lord. To sit still before our God, to be humble in heart and mind, that we might listen. In our waiting, that we might glimpse a little more of the passionate love of God for each one of us and in the grace of that love that we might turn our faces to be attentive to the ‘other’ to whom we are sent.
Blessed Ash Wednesday and have a grace-filled and joyful Lent!
1 Pope Francis, homily, Feast of Presentation of the Lord, February 2nd 2024.
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