Were You There?

Lent is a time for reflections and questions. What will we offer up during Lent? How can we change our daily habits to grow in our relationship with God and each other? How can we serve and walk in the footsteps of Christ right now in our own lives?

“Were You There?” is a beautiful hymn we often sing during the season of Lent. It reminds us that we are called to witness and participate in Christ’s suffering, Passion, and Resurrection. But it also calls us to bring the question into the present: “Are you there for others?”

Being there, physically and mentally, for another person’s needs, joys, and suffering—this is a sacred ministry in which each of us is called to participate. When we share in the truth of another’s sufferings, we can find the face of Christ and share in his suffering.

This Lent, the FMS community—volunteers, alumni, friends, staff, and missioners—will share daily reflections on times they lived, loved, and learned with others during hard times.

We are each called in our own way to walk the Way of the Cross. Since Jesus has walked it before us, he is present with us, just as we are called to be present with each other, so that we can celebrate the joy of the Resurrection together as a community.

We invite you to join us in this Lenten journey.

“We must allow our love for one another to overpower our love of being comfortable, and we must step out and stand beside the people who are rejected and alone, and wipe their faces. We may not be able to remove their suffering completely, but we can offer them hope by showing them that we are willing to risk our own comfort and reputation to be with them in their pain,” writes Claire McGrath on CatholicHow blog.

She continues:

“This is something that we can do every day, with every person that we encounter.”