Every year, we are asked, “What do you do for Lent in the monastery?” We shared in-depth about this last year, but think that this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 5:43 - 48) puts an extra perspective on it. Last week, Jesus was being led out into the wilderness by the Spirit to fast, pray and be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1 - 11). This week, He leads three of His disciples on a hike up a mountain, and reveals His glory to them, as the Father says “This is my beloved Son…listen to Him.” Why, after being encouraged to pray, fast and struggle, are we so quickly shown Christ’s radiant beauty, and reminded so strongly of the love of our Father? Isn’t that a bit strange?

Well, yes and no. Lent is a season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for the Paschal Triduum, which celebrates Jesus’s victory over sin and death. As a monastic community, Lent is a time to live even more simply, and return to the fundamentals of our life—love, prayer, silence, common life, study, manual work. However, as Orthodox saint Seraphim of Sarov said, “The true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are the only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God."  As nuns, we don’t have Twitter or TV shows to give up; but it is possible to get numbed to holy things. It is possible that the horarium and words of prayer become the wallpaper of routine. It is possible, even surrounded by the beauty of God expressed in nature, liturgy, community, to forget that we are called to a peace that this world cannot give (Jn 14:27).

So, Lent is a time to return to the love of our God, and ask Him to help us remove whatever has dimmed the bright light and joy of our salvation that He so wants to share with us. Now that we’ve been “led into the wilderness,” so to speak, the Gospel of the Transfiguration reminds us why we are here—so that “we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).

To put that another way: before the ground froze last fall, one of our younger sisters planted 105 tulip bulbs in the garden and covered them with straw. On Ash Wednesday, she scraped back the covering on a row only to find the first buds poking up. It is still partially winter outside; in fact, today it is snowing. But even underneath the snow and straw, the flowers grew towards the light. If they’re well tended, and the deer don’t interfere, we should have tulips for the Easter Vigil. In much the same way, in Lent God helps us scrape back the covering on His life in our soul, so that we too may grow towards His light. It may not look like much at first; but give it forty days, and the right amount of sun, and who knows what beauty may be revealed?

May God bless your Lent in every way, that we might gaze on His glory together at Easter. Let us remain united in prayer!