Return to Me

“Lent 2001” by Joyce Rupp

The cosmos dreams in me
while I wait in stillness,
ready to lean a little further
into the heart of the Holy.

I, a little blip of life,
a wisp of unassuming love,
a quickly passing breeze,
come once more into Lent.

No need to sign me
with the black bleeding ash
of palms, fried and baked.
I know my humus place.

This Lent I will sail
on the graced wings of desire,
yearning to go deeper
to the place where
I am one in the One.
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Oh, may I go there soon,
in the same breath
that takes me to the stars
when the cosmos dreams in me.

This year, Lent comes at a time when we once again know our own limitation and longing. In the midst of the crises, the deplorable treatment of the most vulnerable people in our society, and the loud bickering over political agendas, there is a turning in the Church towards our mortality: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  It is almost with relief that we acknowledge that our lives are finite and we, thankfully, are not in control of the universe. In our limitation, we turn to our Creator to fill us, to teach us how to inhabit our days and to remind us of what it is that matters most in the end.  

In her poem, “Lent 2001,” Joyce Rupp beautifully describes a mutual desire.  She says that while “the cosmos dreams in me,” she too is “yearning to go deeper.”  Lent, then, is a season of meeting.  In our need, we are met with a God who yearns to embrace us and call us back to greater love and freedom.  The prophet Joel sends out an invitation: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment.”

As we live into our second year as a sanctuary parish, we look to Lent as an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the questions: Who is our deepest sanctuary? How do we become a sanctuary for others?  We need God in so many ways.  Here at the Ignatian Spiritual Life Center, we need God to help us secure a safe, stable home for the family that we shelter.  We need God to give us the courage and clarity to know how to act boldly in our love, and when we can finally surrender our emptiness in humility, we need God to enter in, slowly working through our humanity to make us vessels of Her mercy and compassion.  

Join us this Lent at the ISLC to pray, fast and give of ourselves together.  We have a special peace vigil with a guest speaker from SFICI’s Migrant Voices in the Pulpit series, a three-week exploration of the book, Finding God in All Things, led by Fr. Ray, and a day of retreat based on the theme of sanctuary. Through these activities and more, let us “lean a little further into the heart of the Holy.”
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Blessings,
Grace