I learned a whole lot about “taking up my cross daily” during a two-week period around New Year’s when a slow-moving stomach bug ripped its way through our house, taking down, in order, our toddler, me, our pre-schooler and my wife. (Our newborn was spared as of this writing.) Whether it was holding the sickness bucket in front of the kiddos or watching “Sesame Street” at midnight, my time wasn’t my own, my body wasn’t my own, my life wasn’t my own. All this led my wife to observe that parenting is definitely making us better people – despite some personal lapses into impatience and frustration. Raising little ones is a nonstop exercise in self-giving love, which Christ crucified modeled for us par excellence. I think this is one of the great opportunities of Lent: It’s a chance to clear out some of the spiritual cobwebs and to recommit to loving God and each other without holding anything back.
—Mike Jordan Laskey is the Senior Communications Director of the Jesuit Conference in Washington DC and an alum of Contemplative Leaders in Action in Philadelphia.