Allow this Lenten poem to lead you from ashes to the cross, from the ground of our being to the love and mercy of God, to transformation as we return to God.

How do I love the Lord our God with all my heart, my soul and my strength? With so many things that can divide my heart, I can turn back to God and balance the important relationships in my life through practicing contemplative prayer.

Return to me with your whole heart. We hear this throughout Lent and we strive to return to God every day. How can we live and pray with our whole hearts? Contemplative prayer can help us to live wholehearted lives.

Through the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery in John’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to drop the stones that prevent us from letting go of our need for control and our hesitancy to forgive. What stones do you struggle to drop?

How can we embrace our weaknesses in order to humbly accept who we are and hold the world in wonder? Against the travails of hiking, St. Paul offers some insight to help us overcome our perfectionism and rely on God’s grace.

You may know all the Catholic things about Lent: the ashes, the abstaining from meat, the giving up something, no “alleluias,” the fasting and giving alms. What you may not know is that none of this matters unless we know three unexpected things.