The word “Lent” actually literally means Springtime, the perfect season for renewal! Here’s Week #5 in your “mini-retreat” to refresh your soul throughout Lent. Here’s a list of all of the weeks’ posts.
By Sister Mary Core, OSB
“Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not. See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
Marching forward is really difficult, if you’re always looking behind you … to the past.
Why is it so easy to turn to the past? Because we have control of the past.
We can choose what and how we remember. We can dwell on past hurts and pain, we can live in the sweetness of yesterday, we can choose where and with what or whom we spend our time.
Our passage today tells us: consider not the things of long ago, remember not the events of the past, because God is doing something new for us.
If we are going to move forward with God, to embrace what God has planned for us, then we need to set aside the baggage we are carrying from the past and “walk humbly with our God.”
Isaiah says it beautifully, “See I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
Instead of looking behind into the past, look forward into the future, asking: What is the something new that awaits me? What is springing forth that I am to perceive?
Since the beginning of Lent, God has call us to greatness, holiness and wholeness by dying to self, being still, trusting in the sufficiency of God’s grace, doing justice, loving goodness, and walking humbly with God. Today we add letting go of the past.
Questions for Reflection…
What are you holding on to from your past that needs to be “remembered not”?
What from your past will help you look to the future?
What unnecessary baggage from the past are you trying to carry with you into the future?
Do you have fears about letting God do something new in you? What are they? Why?
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