Lent 2012
“Let us fast in such a way that we lavish our lunches upon the poor, so that we may not store up in our purses what we intended to eat, but rather in the stomachs of the poor.”
– Caesarius of Arles (Sixth Century)
As we enter the Season of Lent, many of us will give up something for Lent—chocolate, desserts, lunch one day a week, cigarettes, or some other luxury. Sometimes giving up something may bring us closer to Christ, but it may also simply have the benefit to our own health or enrich our own purses with the money saved. Caesarius gives us a better suggestion with what to do with our savings—to make the lives of the less fortunate more blessed.
As you move through this Lenten Season, consider ways that your sacrifices might improve the lives of others. Perhaps you could give the savings to the Unity Women’s Desk, to a battered women’s shelter, to an organization such as the Heifer Project, or to invest it in an organization such as KIVA or +++++. Not only will you enhance your own spirituality, but you will be helping some of those about whom Jesus cares so much about with your sacrifice.
Others of you may be adding something to your daily life as a part of Lent. You may be spending more time in prayer or Bible study or spiritual reading. May such disciplines put you in touch with the needs of others such as the women and children we are trying to help through the UWD. May your prayers reach out to those who need them the most. May your reading bring you to a realization of what you can do to help those less fortunate than yourself.
March 8 is International Women’s Day. This day is being celebrated around the world in various ways. In some countries, women are given this day off from work. In other areas, women are given gifts by their spouses and children. I had hoped that the UWD might plan some special celebration for this special day, but it has been a year of organizing, fund-raising, and learning about the problems that women around the world are facing. We are not quite ready to celebrate International Women’s Day, but we have much to celebrate as we have begun granting scholarships and making loans to women to start new businesses. We are still learning and discerning how to make a real difference in the lives of women.
On this website are new some ways in which you can help. If you have not already discerned a spiritual discipline for Lent, please check out this section and see if there is some way that you can make a difference by supporting one of these projects or areas of concern. Make Lent more than a liturgical season; make it a time of real change in your life and the lives of others. If you follow this suggestion, we would like to hear from you about what you have done and how it has changed your life and the lives of others.
We pray that this Lenten Season will be a time of introspection and renewal for you. And that in this process, it will be a time of blessing for others.
Lenten Blessings!
Patty Garner |
