The Lenten Journey

Instructions for living a life.

Pay Attention.
Be astonished. 
Tell about it. 

The poet Mary Oliver would urge us into a threefold posture of attention, astonishment, and testimony, which I think is an interesting lens through which to view our Lenten journey. 

We are called to pay attention to the ways in which Jesus works in the world, the ways in which he shows up with us and for us, in the liturgical and in the very ordinary, in our joy and in our sorrow, in light and in darkness.  

Those who love the poetry of Mary Oliver know her attentiveness is not just to the overtly beautiful, or joyful, or nearly perfect. Her gaze is panoramic, her words often coupling beauty and decay, joy and sorrow, life and death.  

In her poem "The Ponds," she narrates a morning walk and a vision of the lilies on the pond opening to greet the rising Sun. She marvels at their nearly perfect beauty. And yet, she also asks that we bend closer, so that we might see the faint touch of decay. One commentator notes, "Her point is not the inevitable decline of all living things. Rather, she seizes upon the tension between beauty and decay, innocence and fault, and between light and darkness to help us sit up, alert and ready to pay attention." 

I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.

I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing -

-that the light is everything -

- that it is more than the sum

of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do. 

We see as though through a glass darkly, sure. And yet, if we seek not to solve, know, or control, we can, perhaps, just glimpse something more. As Mary Oliver lived so well, "only in paying attention can one hope to see even if in a veiled way." 

When we look with an honest, attentive gaze, truly opening our eyes and hearts to God's wonders, how could we be anything other than astonished. How could we do anything other than join the rest of the natural world as it testifies to God's glory? 

From the rising of the sun to its going down

Let the Name of the Lord be praised.  

As we continue to journey through Lent, may we pay attention, open ourselves up to astonishment, and testify to God's Grace in our hearts and with our lives.  

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.  

Faithfully,

Crystal+