A thought for Lent

In group spiritual direction at the seminary today a student proclaimed:

“I heard God’s voice loudly in class today.  BE a student!
Something in me changed through that experience.”

I have pondered that experience in the hours since being with the students.  For some people that experience may be seem too simplistic or magical  to put their minds around.  But it gave depth and breadth to the call of the Prophet Joel to all of us as we begin the season of Lent.  His understanding of God’s call to the people was to ‘Come back to Me with all your hearts.”

But I sense there is a deeper message here.  The ‘Come back to me’ is effective.  It has power in itself because it is a movement of God toward us, within us. Just to hear the passon of these words!  They give direction and clarity and imaginative possibility to those whom God calls to intimacy.

These words touch the depths of the soul with such intensity that literally we are  being turned just by listening.  God’s desire is for a level of oneness that the soul knows and therefore cannot resist. It reminds me of the  the statement of Jesus “my sheep know my voice and follow me”.

And like the student:  “I heard the voice of God and I am changed”.

May this season of Lent be an affair of the heart as we are being drawn into the Heart of God!