Lent: A time to be endured!  For so many years, I really didn’t like the season of Lent. I was asked to give up things that I really enjoyed. It seemed darker in the church. The priests spoke to us about sin. We needed to go to confession. We could not eat meat on Fridays. It was the season of longer readings at Mass. To some degree it was as if we took joy out of the Church.

What I have grown to realize is that this is actually a beautiful season. We shouldn’t endure Lent. We should dive into it. We do need to talk about sin - confession can be a part of our observance - but this is meant to wash away what gets in the way between us and God. We can look at this as our spring-cleaning. This season is about turning our hearts back to God. Conversion is the goal, and joy is the result. So, as I see it now, the sooner we dive into the season, the quicker we can get to the joy.

-Father Sean