Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,/ Every poem an epitaph.

The direction on the packet of flower seeds reads: "Seeds need darkness to germinate." It makes me think of myself. I want to grow. I want to become more than I am. Yet, so often my self-guided efforts leave me feeling empty, looking for Something More. The "germination," the better life that I seek, must start in darkness. Lent is that darkness. It is nothing something dreadful or depressing. Rather, Lent takes us back to what really matters in life. We return to the beginning. You are here. Why? Did you bring yourself about? Is your life a reward for some accomplishment? No. You have been brought into loving existence by Someone. Why would that Someone want to bring you into being? The answer to all the dissatisfaction and unrest we experience every day is to be found in the love that acted (and acts) to give you life. In the darkness of Lent we meet again this Someone whose love whispers to us, "It is necessary that you exist." In that desire of the divine heart we discover our truest worth. Which sets us free, We belong to this One who constantly speaks to our wounded heart... who constantly calls us in our darkness to come out of our darkness. Lent is for leaving behind our distractions, our delusions. We go into the darkness of Christ's tomb. What happens there to him will happen, too, to us.

--Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., the opening editorial from The Magnificat's Lenten companion reader