Confirmation Lenten Reflections
In our confirmation class on March 2nd, we studied Ash Wednesday and Lent. We read two Gospel texts and compared them. The two texts were when Jesus is Tested in the Wilderness (Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 4:1-11). We will share some of their wilderness reflections that resulted from this class time together.
Wilderness to me is a place where you are alone to think about your life and what is going on. You can think about your actions and work to avoid temptations. Wilderness can come in a time of struggle and reflection, or a time of loss. You can create your own path from it and make new decisions. In being alone, you can think about what brought you there and how it affects your life. Although it could be hard to be in the wilderness alone, it can help you develop yourself as a person. To the church, it could help people connect and go deeper with themselves and their relationships with each other. Wilderness can be a difficult thing to go through, but being there, and being alone to think about things can help people.
-Anonymous, Grade 7
The idea of wilderness in the church is avoiding temptations when alone. To me it means getting through hard times to the light at the end of the tunnel. Being alone can be hard but remembering everyone goes through hard times helps me get through them. The wilderness is parts of life that you do not know how to handle and that are unpredictable. Getting through these times make you stronger and make you think about life differently. One example of this in my life is when my grandfather died when I was around 10. This time in my life was hard because I did not know how to react, and what to feel because I’d never gone through something like this. This experience put me in the wilderness for the first time and made me reflect on things I have in life.
-Anonymous, Grade 8
Wilderness is “liminal space”, Anonymous, Grade 7
Lucas, Grade 6
-Anonymous, Grade 7
