The Fruits Of Lent In Easter

I began the Lenten season saying that I enjoy and even look forward to Lent, but I think I can truly say that I have never experienced a Lent like the one I did this year. My primary sacrifice and offering to Our Lord this year was, as my readers know, to refrain from blogging. I thought I would find this more difficult than I actually did because I enjoy writing so much. I will admit I was tempted a few times to break the blogfast, but am glad I didn't. However, I did continue to write but it was in the form of my journal.
I used the Spiritual Exercises blog as my main focus for prayer, meditation and journaling. The exercises and reflections, written by a group of Jesuits and based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola and on Scripture proved to be quite fruitful and kept me focused and writing. I had been neglecting my journal lately. For me, my journal is not simply a way to record thoughts and feelings, but a real way of communicating with Jesus. My entries are in letter form to Him.
My spiritual reading came from the book, What Jesus Saw From the Cross. I highly recommend this book by Fr. A.G. Sertillanges. He is a priest who lived in the Holy Land and so was able to describe in great detail the places Our Lord had been in His earthly life, but the book is written from Jesus' perspective of these places from the Cross.
I entered Holy Week with the prayer that I wanted to walk along with Jesus through the events of that week. He answered that prayer on so many levels. I went to confession on Wednesday of that week with a priest that I can only describe as amazing. You felt like you were really sitting with Jesus! I thought he was a visiting priest but it turns out he is a priest that works with the Neo-Catechumens movement in our parish.
I was flooded with the emotion of Good Friday but also a keen awareness of Christ's mercy in my life and the awesome gift my faith is. On Holy Saturday I attended the Easter Vigil as I usually do, but had this overwhelming sense of being alone despite the filled church, It took me awhile to realize why this was~it was Jesus' absence; the tabernacle was still empty and until the Consecration, that feeling of aloneness did not leave me. This difficult little grace just reinforced what I already knew, that Jesus' Presence is everything!
And so here we are in Eastertide when we will celebrate the great feast of Easter for the next 50 days.
I did enjoy my Lenten time in the desert, but am also glad to be back with all of you celebrating the joys of Our Lord's Resurrection.