This Lent

I've been away the past several days caring for my grandfather. Please pray for him. I didn't have access to a computer, so that great valentine idea in my head never made it to this page. But lack of online access, always a blessing hidden in disguise, gave me plenty of time to finish my first section of the Kelmscott sweater, and pray about Lent.

I'm slightly scared of Lent this year and I'll tell you why when I get a little more time, but for now, here is what I'll be pondering and re-pondering these next forty days:

....if we really love Him with all our hearts and all our strength, NOTHING will feel like sacrifice in light of the promise that one day we will get to be with Him forever. Automatically, we will help those in need, we will give our all, we will love our neighbor as our self, because our heart is aligned with His. But so many don’t. This then begs the question: If we are not walking in the words of Jesus, do we truly know Him? Do we really know and believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Because if we do, if we believe what He says is true, our lives will be powerfully, unimaginably, radically different than the lives of those around us. He requires EVERYTHING. ~Katie, from The Journey

Come, sweet Lent. Show me where I still worship other gods. And smash them. ~Philosopher Mom

Look at His adorable face. Look at His glazed and sunken eyes. Look at His wounds. Look Jesus in the Face. There, you will see how He loves us. ~ St. Therese of Lisieux

Certainly, you are not unaware of how much the path of love can cost. Christ Himself reminds you of it from atop the Cross. ~Pope John Paul II

Let us go to the foot of the Cross and there complain (of our sufferings) - if we have the courage. ~St. Madeleine Sophie Barat

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. ~Mother Teresa