Lent is a special time to get into good practice. Too often from one Lent to the next we stop what we have started. Good habits disappear to make room for the same old bad habits, the same routine, the same neglect. Why? Because surely we do not include Mary with us in our Lent.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the perfect leader towards perfection. Therefore, in order to have a successful and fruitful Lent, it is necessary, even essential, that we begin this Lent with the Blessed Virgin Mary. We will therefore follow Mary in the 40 days she spent in her house in Nazareth while Jesus went to the desert.
The desert in which Mary spent her 40 days was similar in every way to the one we know. It is not made of sand, but is set in her house; no burning wind, but common household items; no lack of water or food, all the necessities of daily life being at hand; no frightening loneliness, since Mary is in the village where everyone knows her and asks for her help and advice. So, how could the wise Virgin follow and have followed her divine Son into the desert and how will we also follow her? For we too do not live in a burning desert in the Sahara or in the Sahel, but in our own family and in the same environment in which we live outside of Lent time.
Human life as a creature is a gift from God. To be a reasonable being and to have this capacity to receive supernatural life, the life of grace, and to be a child of God through Baptism is a priceless gift that we receive freely without the possibility of ever giving back to the Donator any of that gift.
Thus, the humble Virgin of Nazareth began her daily meditation with this breathtaking descent into the pit of her nothingness. She lowered herself even more deeply than before, and contemplated her immense meekness in relation to this infinitely merciful God. Impelled by the Holy Ghost, she developed and increased in her soul that hold of the Spirit of humility which makes us cry “Abba”, that is to say “Father”. In this we can follow her and be guided by her.
