Lenten Reflection Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lenten Reflection Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lenten Reflection Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lenten Reflection Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lenten Reflection Fourth Sunday of Lent

Lenten Reflection Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Lenten Reflection Monday of the Third Week of Lent

Lenten Reflection Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

In our hour of need, God provides. Sometimes these needs are clear: when we’re thirsty and God brings forth water from a rock in the desert, it’s obvious that He has given exactly what we needed. It can be harder to see, though, when our needs are spiritual—when we need not just water, but living water. In the middle of the Camino de Santiago, there’s a 150-mile stretch of desert called the Meseta. Due to a detour to take the original Roman way, my sister and I were starting a section of 16 miles without a single sign of civilization. My sister is my best friend in the world, but at this point in the pilgrimage, we were pushing each other to frustration. Trekking through the wheat that day, we searched for a place to eat lunch. Perhaps God would provide an oasis, a hidden bench, a water tap in the desert—at the very least, a nicely shaped rock to sit on. But when no such respite manifested, we resigned ourselves to sitting on the ground in a concrete section of the trail, beneath which trickled a brownish stream. We munched quietly on Camino classics: stale Spanish bread, slices of grocery-store Manchego, and gummy fried eggs. “Hey, catch!” My sister tossed a gummy at me. It bounced off my nose, despite my best efforts to catch it in my mouth. I picked it up off the ground and lobbed it back at her. Somehow, I caught the edge of her sunglasses, knocking them off her face and directly into the stream behind her. It was a classic you-needed-to-be-there moment. The tense wall between us collapsed, and we collapsed—laughing, wheezing until our abs hurt. Fortunately, few of us here at STM experience being truly hungry or thirsty in this life. Instead of craving water in the desert, we crave meaning and love and connection—and God provides that, too. In the middle of the Meseta, the desert, God provided what my sister and I needed most: cheap sunglasses and gummy candy in a brownish creek, laughter, reconciliation, and living water.