Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Smithville, Missouri, welcomed Sister Dawn Annette Mills, OSB on Feb. 25 where she hosted a mini-retreat that centered on “Transfiguration - Jesus’ and Ours” and the meaning of Lent. Sister Dawn Annette is the prioress general of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri.
“Many of us are used to thinking about Lent in terms of restrictions rather than in terms of freedom,” Sister Dawn Annette said. “We have been told that it is a holy thing to restrict food, drink, sleep and the pleasures of the body for the sake of the soul. This is not how the Church sees Lent.”
Sister Dawn Annette added that the word ‘lent’ is derived from the Old English word for “spring.”
“It is a season when the earth wakes from the bondage of winter ice and begins to turn green with new life. For the Church, the 40 days of Lent are meant to call us to a time of renewal and re-awakening,” she said. “It is meant to help us shake off the vestiges of what holds us bound and frozen. It is meant to help us grow green again. We are called by the Lenten spring to thaw our hearts frosted by fear and iced in selfishness; that God’s word and will might find a fertile field within us and grow green.”
Sister Dawn Annette also spoke during several Masses and joined participants for a meal and fellowship. |