The Gift of a Silent Lent
ST. JOHN'S ABBEY COLLEGEVILLE, MN 2013 is the first time in the past 20 years that I have not written, shared or published a devotional or prayer guide for the season of Lent. It's been my practice, an offering to the communities I've served as well as a labor of love, devotion and an outpouring of my faith during my entire ministry. Some of those years I took the season of Lent to journal my devotions based on a Gospel or spiritual classic planning, after the 40 days, to edit and polish it for use the following year. As a project during one year of my doctoral work, I used the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers to launch the daily devotional--adding themes, scriptures and prayers. Likely, most of you have found it to be true in your own acts of devotion, I learned much preparing such an offering for others. This Lent however has been a remarkably silent one for me. Surgery at 7 a.m. the morning after Ash Wednesday and a six week reco