Prepare for Lent by Clearing Out Space
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God” (John 14:1).
Renewal. Surrender. Transformation.
We can readily associate these types of words with the Lenten season. However, we need to be in the right head space to bear fruit during this period of preparation for the Good News of Easter. Here are a few activities that have been helping me prepare my mind for the start of Lent. I hope some or all of them help you, too!
Clearing Out the Clutter in Your Exterior Space
You likely have heard an unorganized and cluttered setting can cause disorder within. On one hand, I’m an innately organized person who wants everything to be in its respective space. Too much clutter can easily provoke anxiety. On the other hand, I easily attach sentimental meanings to material objects, making them hard to get rid of. (Yes, grade 4 creative writing project and Cabbage Patch doll, I am speaking about the two of you.)
Over a decade after moving out of my parents’ home to attend graduate school, I recently got around to doing a thorough cleaning-out of my childhood room. I organized most of my items for disposal with one of the following destinations: the donation bin (for gently used clothing and footwear), the recycling bin (binders and binders full of school notes, projects, and short stories), and the garbage bin. I don’t think I fully understood how much stuff I had accumulated and stored (mainly in the closet of my bedroom) over the course of 20 years until I saw the size of the piles of items I discarded.
This particular cleaning endeavour was a bit of a cyclic process. First, I had to get myself in the right head space to be able to part ways with certain items—something that I hadn’t been able to fully achieve until now (which largely explained my futile previous attempts of thoroughly clearing out this space). After the clearing out was finished, I felt a big weight lifted off my shoulders. Indeed, clearing out of this exterior space helped clear out space in my mind as well. What an effective way to prepare my mind for the upcoming Lenten season!
Journaling to Clear Head Space
When I was in elementary school, my grandma bought journals for my sister and me and encouraged us to write in them. Writing out your thoughts can be incredibly rewarding and therapeutic. I have continued journaling throughout the passing years (sometimes more sparsely, other times more regularly), and I have no intention of stopping this practice. I have almost a dozen hard-covered notebooks now filled with my recollections over the years. These journals were one of the few items that I kept when I cleaned out my childhood room. I took them with me back home at Christmas.
A few weeks before Lent during my first year of graduate school, I started writing more regularly in my journal, and I quickly noticed how much better I felt by doing so. Graduate school was a particularly stressful time for me as I was navigating my research project and coursework, volunteer work, relationships, and the experience of living away from home for the first time. Recently, I read through some of my old journal entries from that time. Some made me laugh, while others made me cry. I took a ride across the full range of emotions multiple times, but it was a joy to get a glimpse of how I once viewed the world and how much I have grown and learned since then.
As another Lent approaches, I’m making sure that journaling is part of my preparations.
Receiving the Sacrament of Confession for Spiritual Renewal
We often make a visit to the confessional at the end of Lent, right before celebrating the joys of Easter. Confession is a beautiful way to clear out our heart anytime of the year, so why not receive the gifts of this sacrament ahead of Lent?
In preparation for Lent this year, let’s prepare our space, our mind, and our heart to journey with Christ in the desert, to enable ourselves to be receptive to whatever our individual Lenten journey may bring.
Sarah Gagliano Taliun is a genetics professor with many interests in addition to studying DNA. She and her husband now call Montreal home. When she is not reading a scientific article or meeting with students, Sarah can be found experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, reading her Bible or taking a walk in nature.