What's Contributing to Lack of Belonging in the Church? Averted Eyes
Coronavirus Can Lead Us to A Deeper Experience of Lent
Photo By: Flickr/Lawrence OP
When coronavirus first hit my hometown, I remember thinking, how could this happen during Lent? How could Masses, Lenten programs, penance services, and all the holy things we do during this time be wiped out? Why would God allow this? Not to mention the thousands of people affected and who could die from this.
How could this be during Lent? I wrestled with that question and struggled to see God’s hand in it.
Shortly thereafter, I was talking to a religious sister. She thought that maybe the Lord was calling us to a deeper, more desert-like prayer experience of Lent. We were going to be forced into quiet and stillness, and less busyness. We could approach this as a retreat -- as a time of growing in greater union with God.
Later that same day, I went to the grocery store and realized that I was going to be tempted to greed out of fear, and that food was going to be more limited. Perhaps this was a call to trust in God’s provision more radically and to engage in a more rigorous fast that I didn’t intend on having.
About a day later, new service and fundraising opportunities to help the less fortunate started to pop up and I started to feel this impetus to give charitably of time and treasure -- even though times feel insecure right now economically, and potentially put my “life” (health) on the line to help others in grave need. Poor people still have to be fed and provided for.
Then the next day, I read an interesting article about the Christian response to the virus: to be ambassadors of God’s peace and love in a troubled, panicked world. I realized that I feel that peace and love in spite of this crisis, and that is a gift from God, a gift meant to be given to others. I can share it in words, reflections, my witness, and my writing.
Before I knew it, I started realizing that God was giving me (and perhaps all of us) a deeper experience of Lent. Deeper stillness and more time for prayer, more laying down of my life and goods for others, more trust in His provision, and a call to point others to His peace and love in their fear.
In all this, God awakened me to this insight: Lent is not ruined for 2020. It’s just deepened, and perhaps a little more "real."
About the Author
Katie Zalany lives in Cleveland Ohio. She is a Third Order Secular Franciscan (OFS), spiritual director, benefits/wellness leader, and certified health and life coach. She volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul Society serving the poor, is an active mentor to many individuals, and a prolific writer. Her writing interests and focus areas include spiritual development, reflections on the Gospel life, Franciscian spirituality, prayer, and integration of faith and work/daily living. She is the published author of Called to Corporate: Lessons of Growing in Faith and Holiness from the Corporate Cubicle.
