spring cleaning

I remember my first Holy Week on Altar Guild, back in college, when I realized for the first time what "spring cleaning" meant. In preparation for Easter, those wonderful ladies cleaned the church from top to bottom. Cobwebs were swiped away, all of the wood gleamed with orange oil, and the huge, heavy, iron votive stands were dragged outside so that kettle after kettle of boiling water could be poured over them, washing away a year's acculmulation of wax drippings.

The beginning of Lent brings with it that happy feeling of being washed clean, of getting rid of the superfluous, of being stripped down to the essentials. What better time to do some deep home cleaning? The next forty days are an excellent time to tackle those gross household projects you've been trying to ignore. So go for it! Make plans with your husband to clean out the garage! Get down on your hands and knees and scrub the baseboards! Do that dusting that's been ignored all winter (and use orange oil, it smells delicious!). And certainly go through everyone's clothes and get rid of everything you don't wear. Donate everything in good condition to the Salvation Army and toss the rest.

It's also not a bad time to overhaul the garden. With a little luck, you might have fresh, cut flowers for Easter, and a gleaming home to put them in.

If you're following the liturgical year, the time for spring cleaning is now. Then, come the paschal season, the beauty of your home will echo the beauty of your church, and those shining baseboards will remind you, all those long fifty days, that Christ came to make us clean and new too.


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica