another long journey

How beautiful it is to feel connected with others across distances, cultures, languages! We are bound by our faith in Jesus and his great love for us. Since last year, Diane Atkins initiated the Lenten Journey that connects Richmond Virginia to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A long journey! Several hundred miles! This Journey symbolizes encounter and solidarity of two countries, two dioceses, and dozens of parishes in Hinche and Richmond. Most often, a trip is an opportunity for discovery. It enriches us by revealing to our knowledge new things, new landscapes, new faces. Even if we travel the same route, a trip always brings new. Throughout this Journey we have been supported by the Word of God, by the Lord Himself to the extent that Jesus is the Word of God (John 1, 14). We cannot have better food for the road than the Word of God that makes Him present to us and in us. It is his presence that keeps us calm when storms arise in our lives. It gives us joy when everything around us wants to plunge us into sadness. His presence fills us with his light when the darkness seeks to invade us.

This journey during the time of Lent made us experience movement, progression. Our life is a real journey and we are on our way to God. We must feel the need to stop to evaluate the progress made. Are we in the right path or have we deviated? Have we made enough progress? Lent offers us this opportunity to question ourselves and our relationship with God and with others. The Holy Spirit is always there to inspire us and help us reorient ourselves if we were to get out of the way. He is our compass.

Each Lent offers us the pretext for a new beginning. We had taken advantage of this momentum. We took the road for a journey that lasted 40 days during which we had made small and great sacrifices that helped us to sanctify ourselves in order to approach the risen Christ with a purified heart.

Thank you for making this journey. He brings us a little closer to God and to each other. May the risen Christ always be with us to help us go back to new encounters that enrich our lives.

Have a Blessed Easter!

Bishop Jean of Hinche, Haiti