Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

This Joyful Season

One of the Mass prayers calls Lent “this joyful season.” I find this a little surprising because I think of Lent as a time for seriousness, mortification, and self-denial. Not joy.

But Lent can be a joyful season if we make it a time to lessen our attachments to those things that promise us joy but don’t deliver it (things like money, power, prestige, and getting our own way — lots of things we turn to in order to find happiness but which, in the end, disappoint us).

And we deepen our sense of real joy when we focus on the ways we have been blessed by our very generous God, who holds nothing back in showing us how important we are to him, including Jesus’ being willing to die for us. That makes for a joyful Lent indeed.