My computer desk faces a window that takes in the upper parking lot, the place of our ground-breaking, the place where the holy chaos of construction is about to begin its reign. Over the whole length of construction, I will be able to watch the workers, as they dig and remove the old, then plant and support the new. It should be an extraordinary year for the parish; and I have the privilege of watching it happen right outside my office window.This process of digging & removing the old... this is what the season of Lent is about. Through the various spiritual disciplines offered us by the Lord and by his saints, we seek to "uproot" all that has taken hold of us, and remove "the old". Instead of bull-dozers and earth-movers, we use a different set of machinery: the desire for relationship (our prayer); the desire for health and freedom (our fasting); the desire to live the new way of life (the works of mercy). These disciplines of the heart and will are true earth-movers... and they'll do the job. They'll dig and uproot the old, if we agree to crank 'em and use 'em.
But that's just half the project. We would all be broken-hearted if all the BLF project did was to dig and remove. We're all looking for something new to be planted, something new to be born!
The holy season of Lent is a time of preparation, of cleaning out the heart, preparing the heart for a new kind of structure, a new and improved construction. This is the Spirit's doing, as the seed of the Kingdom is planted; and from a cleaned out construction site, this seed grows... into new life, redeemed life, human life... touched by the One who shares it with us.
We look to this last week of Lent, and ask the Lord to assist us, in preparing our hearts for a new visitation.
AMDG 
Msgr. David Talley
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