Maggie's Farm

Rend your heart, confront your flaws and weaknesses, pray for forgiveness, grace, and for the uplifting of the Holy Spirit's redemption. I love and need the terrible journey of Lent, and I always like the way Anchoress talks about it:

And so we begin, again, the forty days of finding our way back to the God who says, “even now, return to me with your whole heart . . . rend your hearts, not your garments and return to the Lord, your God.”

I have always appreciated that idea of “rending” the heart. Take your hands and tear it open, and expose yourself to God, willingly, needfully, humbly. Open wide the heart; let the poisons that have hardened it or fouled its workings drain out. Make room for God, who will replace our stony hearts with flesh, and renew our spirits.