Lent gives us an opportunity to open ourselves, to be renewed for the most powerful of feasts; the resurrection on Easter Day
Detoxes sound great – a sort of internal shower! Refreshing and renewing, and then ready to face anything. Looking up the NHS view of detox diets, we found a summary including “marketing myth, sounding like a fabulous great concept, wild and exaggerated claims …. better to stick to sound nutrition”
What of our relationship with each other, with our community and with the Lord? What fabulous concept could we use to improve our relationship with each other?
Like all improvements in any aspect of life, improvements need a focus, a determination and a plan. As couples, if we want this, we can sit down with each other, ask what we would like to improve, or to ‘detox’ in our lives. We would then sit-down, dialogue and decide together how we will find excellent nutrition for our relationship and our souls this Lent.
When we married 42 years ago, we were introduced, by another couple in Teams to the “spiritual triangle” – with Man and Woman on two points and God on the third; and with this model that when we move closer to each other along the sides we also get closer to God – and similarly as we get closer to God we get closer to each other.
St John says “God is Love” – and so as we really get closer to Love – and His truth – about him, about ourselves and about each other, we grow God’s Love between us in a special way. How fabulous it would be to be able to shout about this claim … that we have grown closer, ready for the Church’s most important feast at Easter.
So what’s the sound nutrition of Lent….. the three regular practices of Lent that we aim to maintain in a more sincere way during our 40 days are Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. (and don’t take any notice of people who say Sunday’s don’t count for our Lenten efforts) So to with our special relationship with our partner, could we try three Lenten practices
- Communicate with each other more …double up the weekly date-nights (or date- hours)
- Be the fastest to apologise to your partner for misunderstanding and being blunt
- Give help….speak to another (couple) about your Lenten relationship endeavour
This blog was written by Annette and Paul O’Beirne from Teams of Our Lady. Teams of Our Lady are part of the Alliance of Catholic Marriage Organisations. For more information on the alliance please
visit: www.allianceofcatholicmarriageorganisations.org.uk
