Yesterday, I attended one of my favorite Lenten activities, our RCIA Via Crucis at the beach. Thanks to working from home, I was able to meet my friends afterward to help with the setup of each station. This year, while waiting for the students to arrive I saw a family of dolphins jumping delightfully close to the shore. During the Via Crucis I got to see a beautiful a sunset, the moon rise and the beach empty becoming only ours while we prayed. It was extremely cold around 9PM when we concluded, but the fruits of our labors were evident in the hearts of our students. They were delighted by such a beautifully set introduction to our Lenten prayer and shared with us how they felt God’s presence intimately.
Usually, I am in charge of taking pictures, but yesterday I
wanted or rather needed to just focus on the prayer without any distractions
because I so needed that moment with God.
Lately, I have been struggling keeping the flame alive in my spiritual
life. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by
my job and the isolation and lockup due to the pandemic that I just have enough
energy to get through my work day. I am
not only dealing with my personal feelings of anxiety, but also the emotional
rollercoaster of the teens and the parents that I work with. Before I was able to attend weekly bible
study meetings and social events that filled me up. I could run into a parish and be with Jesus
or just sit in silence in a pew. My coping mechanisms and spiritual therapy
were put on hold this past year and I have been running close to empty.
Thus, being able to pray at the beach with my friends and students
was the biggest Lenten blessing. I needed to be there in the company of faith
friends worshipping God. Last year we
were unable to do our beach Via Crucis and so yesterday it was that much more
special, a sign that life is slowly going back to normal. In the years that I have done it I have never
seen dolphins join us and seeing them yesterday warmed my heart. I felt like God gave me a late Valentine by giving
me a glimpse of the dolphins doing summersaults in the air. I realized there’s a big world out there one
with waves, sunsets and creatures living under water and sometimes I get lost
in the small bubble that is my life. The
beach reminded me of my smallness and in doing so pointed me towards the greatness
of our Lord.
"Look at the birds of the air that they do not nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"
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