Wow.
One difference in schedule (going to church last night)
and suddenly my soup is not made, my dishes unwashed...!
So I have been listening to a French CD
while making lentil soup.
I am realizing how language learning
is a lot like the spiritual life;
or at least for ones like me
who are rank beginners in the spiritual life!
One has to start at the beginning
take small steps in order to start making
slightly bigger steps...
First learning one's ABC's
then one's numbers,
colours, body parts (le coude is elbow),
how to say something in the past
(je viens de finir means I am just finished)
before one can begin to make
slightly more complicated sentences.
I have the grammar book
and see all the tenses
but know I cannot use them yet, as I have to learn
the basics first
and then build on them
piece by piece.
The same with the spiritual life...
I know, for instance,
somethings about the Orthodox understanding
of the process of purification towards
what, in theological terms,
is called deification/theosis.
Similar in word choice to the word sanctification
in Protestant terms...
But to actually be pure in heart
and to know that that is the goal
are two different things!
The same with learning a language.
Lent is our training in one of the most beautiful languages of all:
God-pleasing humility.
