An opportunity for contemplation
I am writing this short text starting the season of Lent. This year I received the message that Pope Francis writes every year for the different times and, on this occasion, I was able to read it calmly. It seemed to me a text to be able to pray in this time that we can devote to preparing for Easter and to live it fully.
From this text I want to point out what caught my attention and which I think can help me at this time; maybe to other people too. It invites me to contemplate reality, to stop to be able to contemplate it, and to pay attention to everything that prevents me from living in full freedom.
The road to freedom
In fact, the title of the message is Through the desert God leads us to freedom. I feel that this is our mission: to live and remember this path of freedom to which we are called and called as God’s favorite sons and daughters.
Jesus spent those forty days in the desert, before starting his public life; then he will devote many long periods of time to prayer, to solitude and silence, to being with the Father. Our life, sometimes, makes it easier for us, but maybe this time we can make the effort to make more moments of silence and let God guide us towards freedom, to arrive at Easter in a better disposition to live- the fullness.
Freedom and joy
If we live this internal conversion towards greater freedom, there is one more step that Francis also tells us: “Let the joy be seen on the faces, let the fragrance of freedom be felt, let this love be released that makes all things new things, starting with the smallest and closest”, in order to offer the world a new hope.
