Dear Saints,

Did you suck your thumb excessively as a child? Or perhaps own a well-loved blanket that had to travel with you everywhere? Natural habits of safety and security when we’re young, most of us carry some vestige of them into adulthood. We’re attached to something (or many somethings), and we don’t know that everything will be okay if we lose it; in fact, we’re terribly afraid that things won’t be okay if we lose it. It may be money, prestige, youth, or beauty. It’s often creature comforts like food, drink, warm showers, and plush beds. Not bad things in and of themselves by any means, they nonetheless have power over us because we think we need them to be happy or sane.

Sometimes we grow out of these attachments without much effort or thought, but sometimes we need more intentional intervention. Since Aristotle, wise men and women have counseled that the most effective way to break a dominant habit is to go the other way for a time. if you love money, give it away; if you’re obsessed with your reflection, stay away from mirrors; if you crave attention, go out of your way to live in obscurity; if you need coffee to be cheerful, switch it out for water. Lent is an ideal time to practice this kind of detachment. To be clear, we don’t detach for the sake of detachment; rather, we detach in service of rightly ordered hearts, such that we prefer nothing to God and his purposes. The point, finally, is to recognize what we knew well as children: as comforting as a tattered old blanket may be, nothing can compare to the love and security of being held close in the arms of a loving Father.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ

PS Our beyond-the-tithe challenge for this Lent is Several Sources, a well-known local charity that saves babies’ lives and shelters their young mothers. Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 for this great work.