This upcoming week is Holy Week! I can’t believe how fast this lent has passed! As we get ready for Holy Week, I have spent some time thinking about spring cleaning.
Growing up, I remember scrubbing the house down thoroughly during Holy Week, following the practices . For 3-4 days, we tackled different tasks in our home, making sure that every dust bunny and spiderweb lurking in the dark corners were ousted from their hiding places. Thinking about this family tradition (one I honestly remember my mom learning about from a Catholic writer whose name neither my mom nor I can recall) made me reflect on the Sacrament of Penance.
Lent is a time of penance – of “Spring Cleaning” for your soul. During these 40 days, we, like Jesus, spend a time without certain luxuries. The things we give up serve as moments for us to spend in prayer, which brings us closer to Christ. Much like opening curtains exposes the little dust bunnies and cobwebs, drawing closer to Christ makes our sins more obvious to us. This light allows us to make a more complete examination of conscious, to make our cleaning “game plan”.
Finally, it comes time to clean our souls through confession. However, this step can be the most difficult. Personally, when it comes time to clean, I freeze up. The mess seems daunting and, at the risk of sounding dramatic, I can feel like the mess will NEVER get cleaned. The same tends to happen when we go to confession. After all, how can Christ ever forgive us? Will our souls really ever be made white again after our sins stain them so badly? Of course Christ will be there to renew us! This fear is Satan trying to keep us from being absolved-from being made clean once more and renewing our relationship with Christ.
Mommy's Prayer 