Our parish office staff spent today doing a very Lenten thing - cleaning. The office was closed today so that we could concentrate on a yearly massive clean up of our office space, especially our storage rooms and common areas. Every place inhabited regularly by human beings needs a regular cleaning and sprucing up, and for the good of all it is a great benefit to occasionally go through our things and get rid of anything we no longer need or no longer use. A lot was organized in the parish office today - from our copy paper to our marriage and funeral preparation materials, from our meeting rooms to our kitchen cabinets. And I'm sure there will be plenty to keep us busy during next year's Lenten Cleaning Day as well.
Spring cleaning is a Lenten activity because the season of Lent is all about a cleansing and preparation to receive the new life of Easter. Most often, we concentrate on cleansing our souls and cleaning up our spiritual lives through the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; but this is also a great time of year to do a physical cleaning of the spaces we live and work in. Simplicity, orderliness, and cleanliness are certainly virtues, and we can spend these Lenten days using these virtues to guide our daily actions. Even at its root, Lent is connected to Spring -the word "Lent" comes from the same root as the word "lengthen" - this is the time when the days get longer and the light gets brighter, both the light of the sun and the light of the Son of God, whose resurrection will shine brightly and show us the way to salvation.
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