One Final Lenten Thought

As I was praying Prime this morning, I was suddenly reminded of this, one of my favourite stories from the Desert Fathers.

I’ve been ruminating on it most of the day.

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’

Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’

(Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Abba Joseph of Panephysis)

My Lent this year has been rough. Each year, it seems, I learn new lessons about myself and my spiritual life during Lent.

This Lent I have come to realize that I am Abba Lot. I’ve been struggling for exactly how to put it before this morning, and then suddenly the story popped into my head.

I am like Abba Lot. There’s a quantum shift – a transfiguration, if you will – that I must pass through before I can share the divine life in the way that Abba Joseph did.

Perhaps that moment is as late as a liminal space between this world and the next. Perhaps that moment will happen today. Who knows? I will leave it in God’s hands.

In the meantime, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts.

A blessed Sacred Triduum to you all!