How Lent Looks at The Woods

By: Andrea Beyke

The Church all over the world marked the beginning of Lent this week with Ash Wednesday, and it was no different here at The Woods…indoors, at least.  The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word in the 13^th Century that means “spring” or “springtime.”  In this way, it looks nothing like Lent here…outdoors.  

Photo Credit: Sisters of Providence

Yesterday, some students and the campus minister gathered for a faith-sharing group during dinner.  The planned activity was to pray the labyrinth.  Upon waking up on Thursday morning, this was the feared outcome…

Needless to say, we decided to try finger labyrinths and paper labyrinths instead. Therefore, we were able to stay indoors and warm, and we were also able to write on the paper labyrinths the baggage we wanted to drop on the way toward the center and then write the virtues we wanted to pick up on the way back into the world with God.  This exercise was just as effective, if not more so.  

With this amended group sharing, I discovered how Lent looks on the inside of The Woods.  Lent looks like a pilgrim journey, bending and curving around the obstacles.  Lent is naming the obstacles and what we can do to remove them.  Lent is finding and following the path that makes us our best selves.  This is exactly what’s happening here. 

On Ash Wednesday, the student body gathered with some Sisters of Providence for prayer and to receive ashes.  The beautiful service, led by Sister Jan Craven, SP, brought students together: Catholic and non-Catholic alike.  One student posted later Wednesday evening, “Even though I myself am not Catholic, I am very thankful for all the opportunities I have at St. Mary's to learn and participate! Tonight I attended my first Ash Wednesday service and I gained a new perspective on what it and Lent itself are all about thanks to Sister Jan. Never miss an opportunity to broaden your perspective and have new experiences.”

Snow on the ground, grey days, frigid temperatures, and slippery sidewalks have nothing on us here at The Woods!  I’m reminded of the old saying, “When it is dark outside, the light that makes the stained glass window beautiful comes from the inside.”  Lent may have a snowy beginning per the natural world, but from where I stand, the warmth within the walls carries us through this journey.   Before we know it, the outside will follow suit, bringing spring, and the growth that we experience on the inside will manifest itself.

So, how does Lent look at The Woods?  Like this…

Photo Credit: Sydney Wilderman

"So let us be marked not for sorrow. And let us be marked not for shame. Let us be marked not for false humility or for thinking we are less than we are but for claiming what God can do within the dust, within the dirt, within the stuff of which the world is made, and the stars that blaze in our bones, and the galaxies that spiral inside the smudge we bear." Jan Richardson

Lent: Beyond the Cliché

By: Andrea Beyke

Lent is a season in the Church that is part of a whole year of liturgical seasons; these seasons allow us to experience Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection by associating our lives with different parts of his.   During Lent, we take the time to repent, like Jesus did in the desert.  Repent seems like such an awful word – as though we’ve done something awful and we have to feel bad about it.  That’s not the whole story.  Repent simply means “to turn.”  To repent during Lent means to do things that turn us back to God, aligning our lives with Jesus’ so we can prepare ourselves to celebrate the greatest feast: the Resurrection.  As we approach Ash Wednesday, think about what you can do to turn to God.  Challenge yourself this year, and go beyond the clichés of “giving up” something. Now is a great time to take stock of your spiritual life, and to grow in it.

Below are a few suggestions for this Lent:

1) Spread the Love.  Take a few minutes each day and write a note full of kind words to a friend or acquaintance.  It will make his/her day!

2) Make a commitment to reading the Sunday readings before you go to Mass. In the same way that reading up on football players, opposing teams, and coaching strategies will help you experience a game more fully, familiarizing yourself with the readings ahead of time can allow you to experience them in a deeper way on Sunday. (Find the Sunday readings here.)

3) Don’t have time to read all three readings? Then just read the Gospel.

4) Make a commitment to trying something new spiritually. Never tried an hour of Eucharistic adoration? Find a parish where you can try it. Never attended Mass at a parish of an ethnic group that’s different than yours? Give it a try.  Wondered what Taize prayer is?  Join the Sisters on March 10^th at 7:00 in the Church of the Immaculate Conception.  

5) Think about what you usually spend your money on. Do you buy a few too many clothes? Spend a few too many bucks on iTunes? Eating out? Pick one type of expenditure that you’ll “fast” from during Lent, and give the money you would usually spend to a great local charity…or put it in your CRS Rice Bowl.   Get your Rice Bowl at SMWC’s Ash Wednesday service or in the Campus Ministry office.  There will also be some available in Sacred Heart Chapel.  

6) Go to a weekday Mass one day during the week. The Sisters of Providence offer Daily Mass at 11:30 in the Church of Immaculate Conception, and SMWC Campus Ministry offers a Wednesday Night Worship at 7:30 in Sacred Heart Chapel.  Daily Masses are often more intimate and informal than Sunday Mass.

7) Read the entire Gospel of Mark in one sitting. As the shortest Gospel, it is the most concise story of Jesus’ life, and the cross, a central Lenten symbol, plays an even more prominent role than in the other Gospels.

8) Attend the Stations of the Cross somewhere — SMWC Campus Ministry will offer a “Stations on Location” around the city during Lent.  Stay tuned for day and time!

9) Turn off your iPod or your car radio on your commute or don’t walk to class with earphones. The silence may be jarring at first, but you may find that you are able to concentrate better and will be more observant of your surroundings.

10) Buy a book of daily reflections (or borrow one from your campus minister) and keep it by your bed. Local parishes often offer these for purchase during Lent, and there are some good ones available online. 

11) Think about a habit that has kept you from being whom God is calling you to be. Consciously give up that habit for Lent.

12) Make a commitment to “fast” from cruel comments about others. So, no gossiping or reading celebrity tabloids.

13) As a part of your Lenten almsgiving, make a point to learn as much about a particular social issue (immigration, human trafficking, racism, AIDS victims, child poverty) as possible. Give money to an organization, related to your chosen issue that supports the dignity of the human person.

14) Pray for somebody. As you’re walking across campus, driving home, sitting at your desk, or going to a movie, pick out a person who appears to be in need, and pray for that person. Be mindful of the words of Philo of Alexandria, who said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”

15) Read the Works of Mercy as Jesus describes them in Matthew 25. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink…in prison and you visited me.” There are plenty of opportunities available in your own community to put this teaching into practice. Choose an act of service you can perform throughout Lent.

16) Make a list of all the excesses in your life. Think about which ones you could do without.

17) Journal each night about the blessings of the day. 

18) Wake up 5 minutes earlier in the morning to say your prayers.

19)  Make an effort to call your parents/caregivers/grandparents more often.  They love to hear from you!

20)  Connect with someone new each day.  Take the time to start a conversation with someone you don’t normally talk to. 

Failure

By: Andrea Beyke

Failure = the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.  I mean, really…you have Marshawn Lynch!  Run the ball!!  This is all I’ve heard throughout the past week in regards to sports news.  The ultimate mis-call.  Failure.  Forget that they were defending Super Bowl Champs.  Or that the New England Patriots made a timely interception and won.  Or that Seattle played a great game otherwise.  This one failure defines Coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks and the entire game.

Have you ever failed at something?  Maybe you thought you had it in the bag…and BAM!  It all fell apart.   Or maybe you worked excruciatingly hard for something and you fell short.  Either way, you fell.  And of course you failed…we all have!  It’s part of being human.  We take chances to achieve something we think is worth the risk.   And sometimes it doesn’t work out the way we had envisioned.  Failure.

Jesus failed.  In the Catholic lectionary, Wednesday’s Gospel from Mark 6:1-6 provides an example of this:

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

During our communion service, Sister Marsha Speth, SP reminded us that we are not alone in failure.  Our God has experienced it, too.  Jesus was rejected by his own hometown.  Ouch.  Our Messiah, down for the count.  Our Savior, throwing the interception.  Yes, Jesus failed, but what’s important to note is that the Gospel continues.  The Gospel of Mark doesn’t end with chapter 6.  The fact that the Church still exists today is proof that there is life after failure.  Jesus continued on.  And so did the apostles.  And then the early Christians.  And now we continue on.  What great comfort: to know that we have a God who has experienced failure.  We can relate to the Divine and the Divine can relate to us.  And then, after healing and time, we can continue with the knowledge that the Holy One remains with us and within us.  

Will the Seattle Seahawks ever get over this catastrophic loss?  Will ESPN cover something other than the “Worst Super Bowl Mistake Ever Made”?  Golly, I hope so.   Pete Carroll will continue to be a successful coach, and the “12^th Man” will rise again.  

Here’s what I ask you to consider:  what about those who don’t have the opportunity to continue?  What about those who are defined SOLELY by their failure(s).  Their entire life and death are a consequence of their failure.  Death row inmates.  Think of the worst thing you’ve ever done – your worst failure.  Could you imagine that being your ONLY identity?  We believe that there is more to a human than his/her worst failure.  While I know this is a loaded topic, I cannot avoid it.  Take a moment.  Thank God that we have the opportunity to recover from failure, just as God did.  And think about why our government feels they can pronounce which failures are irredeemable…often times based on the defendant’s lack of money (and therefore inadequate attorney) and/or race. 

We are not a perfect people.  We fail.  But we are a people with hope.  We are a people with hope because we know how the Story ends.  Shouldn’t we be advocates for hope, as well?

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