The Season of Lent

Echoes of the Desert: How Today’s Walk for Peace Mirrors Jesus’ Journey to Begin His Ministry

With Lent just one week away, the timeless practice of spiritual preparation is finding a powerful, modern display along the roads between Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C.

In a recent interview, Sister Lynne Moldenhauer, IHM, shared the meaning of Lent and drew a striking parallel to the Buddhist monks currently undertaking their Walk for Peace.

“One of the things that has really moved me in the last week or so is this Walk for Peace that the Buddhist Monks are making.” She says, “Jesus entered the desert in preparation for his ministry. In that experience he is tested by Satan to prove his faithfulness to God. The Walk for Peace by the Buddhist Monks parallels the desert experience of Jesus for me in that they are walking to offer a more life-giving way to live and walking to counter evil among us to bring about worldly peace.”

The response of the people who pour out to engage with the Monks on their walk is evidence of the hunger for peace, compassion and mercy the people are longing for.

Whether in the desert or along highways, Jesus and the Monk’s journey echo a shared truth across humanity: peace, love and transformation is something we move towards together, one step at a time.

What is Lent?

During Lent this year, Sister Lynne is setting aside time to journey inward and discern how faithfully she is living out her call to serve God. She says, “In my interactions every day, how am I going to be a person of peace? How am I going to be a charitable person? How am I going to refrain from judgement, from negativity? How am I going to find a way, in the most difficult circumstances, to love a person who commits unlovable acts?“

by Jan Richardson

If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.

Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.

Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
This is what
this journey is for.

I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.

But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.

I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.

I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:

Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace

“As we cross with Christ into the landscape of Lent and into the mystery that lies ahead of us, may we know at least this about ourselves: that our name, too, is Beloved.”

Image: Desert of the Beloved © Jan Richardson

Observing Lent: Then and now with Gail Addis, IHM

Sister Gail Addis, IHM, reflects on observing lent as a child with a Presbyterian father and Catholic mother. She shares alternative ways to observe lent that do not require “giving up” or fasting; ways men, women and children can be more proactive, loving and to be more like Christ. She says, “I would take a look at myself to see where I might need to be a little more loving and who might I need to be loving toward.”