Alleluia! He is risen! The Church wisely gives us fifty days to celebrate this joyous Easter miracle – more time than we get to prepare for it in Lent. While Lent may be a more disciplined season, Easter does not have to mean the reversal of all the good work the Lord has done in us over the last forty days. It can instead be a time of continued growth, where we are able to witness the blossoming of virtue and nurture the grace the Lord has offered during Lent.

I like to think of Lent as a time for tending to my own inner garden. I focus in on pruning out bad habits and pulling out “weeds” that direct my attention away from the Lord. I try to thoughtfully replace an unhelpful habit with a more spiritual one that directs me back to prayer and charity during Lent, planting a seed of grace in my heart, so to speak. I give up social media and rededicate my morning scrolling time to opening up my Bible. One year I gave up complaining and, instead, thanked God for everything I came across in my day. (This was easier to do on certain days more than others!) Why end such a fruitful practice at Easter?

If Lent is a time for pruning and planting, Easter is a time for watering what the Lord has produced from those seeds in the newly tilled and weeded soil of our souls. After all, Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the gardener when He appears to her on Easter morning and commissions her to tell the Good News (John 20:11-18). The Lord is the master gardener of our souls, and all fruit we bear ultimately comes from Him. Our cooperation with His workings yields the greatest fruit for His kingdom.

What tending the inner garden looks like in real life will vary depending on your vocation, stage of life, and the practices adopted during Lent. If we, like Mary Magdalene, have “seen the Lord” (John 20:18) during Lent, we must continue the daily habits that led us to see Him more clearly in our lives so that we can proclaim His Gospel with greater passion and authenticity. What follows is an example from my own experience to hopefully provide you with inspiration for your own Easter journey. 

Several years ago, I joined a “zero food waste” Lenten challenge sponsored by Ignatian Solidarity Network. The idea was to use every scrap of food I purchased and throw nothing away. I quickly discovered how much meal planning is involved in such an endeavor, and with two young kids in “picky eater” phases, how much we had been throwing away. As Lent went on, I realized much of our food waste could be curbed by chopping and freezing produce before it spoiled, and by composting unusable scraps. We purchased a backyard composter, and I repurposed an old coffee tin into our scrap collection bucket in the fridge. Years later, our composter is churning out excellent food for our new vegetable garden. It is rare now for me to throw away anything more than the last few bites of food on our plates. The habits I started during that Lenten challenge “stuck” and in fact grew. Since then, we have begun to grow our own herbs, berries, and vegetables, and tending to this physical garden is a deeply meditative act that I cherish each spring and summer.

The seeds of gratitude, stewardship, and love for creation sowed in me that Lent have blossomed into a whole new perspective on our use of resources. Each time I do have to throw away a moldy bit of forgotten produce or unconsumed meat, I think of the hours of labor that went into producing it. I find myself routinely thanking God for the farmers and workers who make it possible for me to feed my family. Trips to the local farmers market are part of our weekly routine. Had I ended the food waste challenge at Easter that year, my family and I would be missing out on so many connections we have made to the land around us and the beautiful people tending it.

 Where did you experience God working in you this Lent? Was there a habit you abandoned, whose absence led to an increase of faith, hope, or love – or a habit you began which did the same? Stick with it, maybe even expand on it. You never know what the Lord can accomplish in and through you when you notice and receive His grace and seek to cooperate with Him. Perhaps, several weeks into this Easter season, you will find Jesus calling your name, drawing you into His embrace, just like Mary Magdalene that Easter morning in the garden.