Unity through Communion

The painting below is by Anja Rozen, and was drawn when she was a 13-year-old school student in Slovenia in 2022.

It’s title is “Unity”:

"My drawing represents the land that binds us and unites us.

"Humans are woven together. If someone gives up, others fall. We are all connected to our planet and to each other, but unfortunately we are little aware of it. We are woven together. Other people weave alongside me my own story; and I weave theirs."

The poster is being used for a call to global interdependence; to recognise the need to care for the earth and for one another. It’s popularity is growing with all the conflict playing out across our world at the moment and the climate challenges we face. 

One admires the skill and vision of this child as an intuitive and innocent call. A call for collaborative decision-making processes within our divided world and for greater unity with an emphasise on collective action, dialogue, and shared responsibility. 

Whilst this image has profound insight, a plea from her heart and soul, the way its being interpreted misses the most important ingredient. One sadly overlooked by our secular, Western mindset as it places hope in a web of global institutions or powerful individuals to solve humanities problems which are spiritual in nature.

This icon is a better representation of our place within nature and to whom we are ultimately accountable - in true unity with Him, through Him, and with one another. 

Any cure must first identify correctly the infection causing the illness. The human disorders overrunning our world - envy, pride, greed, gluttony, selfishness, the desire for vengeance, for dominance, lust. 

The icon below depicts three persons seated around a table. A vacant fourth place is depicted. This Trinity of Persons invites us to commune with them; to become a sharer in their Divine life. 

(Icon of the Trinity - Andrei Rublev)

Have a Blessed and Holy Lent

We associate the word “Lent” with the word “fasting.” However, the cornerstone of Lent is not fasting, but repentance and growth in our faith. The biblical meaning of the Hebrew verb to repent is “to turn and go a different direction.” In Greek, this term is rendered “metanoiein,” meaning “to change one’s mindset.” Thus, fasting is a tool for spiritual growth, an aid to turning from our desires and passions, getting them in check, and turning towards God and away from our common human failings and preoccupations. Fasting also relates to prayer and is a way of petitioning God.

Hunger and hungry thoughts are a very basic human passion and desire. If we can tame and discipline this particular passion, we can hopefully develop the discipline to tame our other passions and get them in order. If we can go without certain kinds of food, we can learn to discipline ourselves to go without other behaviours that are spiritually destructive. So fasting from food is to gain control of our other passions.

Jesus asks us to fast (Matthew 6: 16-18) so that we can benefit spiritually. We express our recognition that spiritual things are more important than earthly, physical things. We learn to deny ourselves pleasures in spite of the discomfort. We recognise the need to reform and to get closer to God. We willingly shoulder the burden and adopt a humble posture, recognising our dependence on God and affirming our submissiveness to His will.

If not, this may be our future:

Interior Sacrifices

This article in Aleteia (a great site) on Interior Sacrifices for Lent helps put the season in perspective. 

Interior sacrifices can often be more difficult to perform, as they are not tangible and require greater mental and spiritual energy.

Yet, an interior sacrifice can lead to a more intimate union with God and is a sacrifice that Jesus himself promoted.

Hidden sacrifices

Jesus praised those who performed sacrifices that were hidden from the world:

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you...when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
- Matthew 6:2-4, 6

Often we will want people to see us when we give up desserts or give large sums of money to the poor, as then they can validate our sacrifice and be a witness to it.

It's important to remind ourselves that the only person we need to "impress" is God. Our goal in Lent should not be to see how we can show off in front of our friends and family, but to offer everything out of love for God.

St. Francis de Sales also praises this kind of interior sacrifice in his Introduction to the Devout Life:

[T]he common run of men ordinarily value temporal almsgiving more than spiritual; and think more of fasting, exterior discipline and bodily mortification than of meekness, cheerfulness, modesty, and other interior mortifications, which nevertheless are far better. Do you then, my daughter, choose the best virtues, not those which are most highly esteemed; the most excellent, not the most visible; the truest, not the most conspicuous.

One simple example of an interior Lenten sacrifice is to try and think better of your coworkers and to pray for them.

Another example is to work on forgiving your family members, even if they are deceased and you can no longer openly ask for their forgiveness.

The key thing to remember is that it is our heart that guides our exterior actions and so if we never deal with our inner turmoil, we will never be able to overcome our exterior faults.