FRANCISCAN REFLECTIONS FROM THE HERMITAGE LENT

A Journey Into The Desert

It is only then that we will become heralds of the Gospel and instruments of transformation and peace in the world. Without this metanoia we have nothing to say to the world.

by imagining that retreat to a desert meant freedom from the world. The hardest world to leave, they knew, is the one within the heart.

Our journey into the desert is not accomplished by completing a to-do list. Loss and grief are an intrinsic part of all aspects of our lives including our spiritual journey. Life is change. We undergo change, loss, and grief from birth onward. Every venture from home, every move, every job or status change, every loss of a person, a pet, belief, every illness, every shift in life such as marriage, divorce, or retirement, and every, kind of personal growth and change; a cause for grief. These are our ‘little deaths of life’. After we have encountered and embraced this death and grief, the loss of our investment in the assumptions about self, life, and the world, we are capable of that spaciousness needed to take God’s hand. It is only after this death and grief, that we open ourselves to that vulnerability of leading a life of daily conversion, centred on prayer, metanoia, and contemplation. It is only then that we can hear God’s Word so as to live from ‘Gospel to life and life to Gospel’.