Every day I’m chapil’n | Issue 4

Every day I’m chapil’n | Issue 4

A Season to Pause

For those of you who were unlucky enough to be out of Dunedin during the November to January period, we had a fantastic summer. I loved it.

Have you noticed our mornings are now cooler and it’s now getting dark sooner, the days are slowly becoming shorter. I gave in last week and admitted to myself that it’s now Autumn. For some of us too it is the season of Lent. For centuries, women and men have made use of this season to deepen their experience of God. Sometimes by giving help to others and sharing our resources with those who have a greater need, or by fasting from certain foods or drink or maybe by choosing to pray more with greater intentionality. And so we live these days prior to remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus differently; it’s a new season and it is as distinct from the Christmas season as Autumn is from Spring. Put simply it’s a time to pause.

We have all begun another semester. At this stage we can easily forget that we actually even had a break. So I would like to share the gift of Lent for us all. One way of doing this is by pausing throughout the day. How about until the feast of Easter you give yourself this gift. So immediately before you engage with the next task, you pause and recall that you are gifted and loved. Pausing to stop and remember the sheer gift of being here, or remembering who matters most to you. So instead of the rushing and the squandering of time, we can actually use these days before Easter to live a more focused life. Our gift is living, and we all have a definite purpose. I believe that a part of this purpose is to make the lives of others, especially those who haven’t had the opportunities we have, better and more human. It can be easy to become self-focused and forget the bigger picture. So how about pausing from time to time and bringing to mind our life purpose.

– Father Mark Chamberlain
This article first appeared in Issue 4, 2012.
Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Father Mark Chamberlain.