I was a boarder at the Latin School in Indianapolis. The Latin School was a high school seminary and of its nearly 400 students roughly 30 of us boarded at the school. We lived-in the dorms Monday through Friday and went home on the weekends.
For boarders snow days like today were a high schooler's dream come true. We had access to the school's gym and all the athletic and recreational equipment. Unlike the students who stayed home, we had no chores to catch up with and no real constraints. Basketball games ran all-day in the gym while pin pong and pool matches only stopped long enough for lunch and dinner. Priests who lived in the dorms or at the Holy Rosary rectory joined us in our day of recreation.
Snow days closed not only the school but ended the spiritual discipline of morning meditation, mass and afternoon mediation. On snow days we were left to our own devices recreationally and spiritually. I'll admit I did not make a strenuous effort to continue my spiritual practice on any snow day.
Snow events of the magnitude we are experiencing today make life harder for many people including mail carriers, firefighters, ranchers and farmers. However, we know this moisture is critical for the crops, grass, trees and rangeland. The moisture makes new life possible. My Lenten practice just like this spring snow will nourish my celebration of the Easter sacraments. And like the seasons this twentieth day of Lent, the Feast of St. Joseph marks the halfway point in our Lenten journey. Even though we cannot see it now, new life is just ahead.
I hope your celebration of St. Joseph's feast day is a glorious day.
"The son of David will live for ever." (Ps 89:37)