ileana

 March 2024

We have started our 40-day journey into Lent. We began with love on St Valentine's Day and we will finish with love on Easter Sunday. What I find exciting about this season is that the more time I spend with God, the more surprised I am by his love which always connects us with other people as we go.

I went to the hospital searching for a member who was already home, but they sent me to a stranger with the same name. As I went into his room, I realized the mistake, but the patient was so happy with the visit and so eager to talk that I stayed for a while, listened, and prayed—a surprise from God in my love journey into Lent.

One morning, I received a call about a very distressed man asking for the pastor. A few minutes later I arrived to listen to his sad story. That morning, his wife had been in an ac-cident on her way to a work conference in North Carolina. The driver died instantly, and his wife was in intensive care. I shared words of hope to calm his heart and prayed with him to encourage his faith. After I sent him to find his wife, he hugged me and thanked me with tears. A surprise from God that connects us with others in love.

For some people, Lent is a time of reflec-tion and spiritual growth, a time to consider the meaning of this sacred season and to integrate the Bible’s teachings into their lives. For others, Lent is a 40-day journey of repentance where we seek to see God and strive to turn from those things that distract us from him.

For me, Lent is the journey of love where seeking God brings us always to the stranger. It is about finding God in the faces of the people
we encounter: the moaning, the hopeless, the stranger, the frustrated, the desperate. This could be tricky or difficult and might require sacrifice and a generous heart but at the end of Lent, we will all celebrate God’s love in the res-urrection of our Lord!
Blessings!
Rev. Ileana Rosario