The Sisters of Life are continuing a Lenten season of their podcast Let Love, a weekly series rooted in affirming the dignity of every human being, with a discussion on the power of the mind and the beauty of surrendering one’s thoughts to the Lord.
In their latest episode, Learning to Discern Our Thoughts, podcast hosts Sisters Mary Grace, Magnificat Rose, and Cora Caeli discuss how bringing one’s thoughts into the light allows God’s grace to transform them, leading to greater interior freedom.
Throughout the episode, the sisters largely reference the guidance of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who learned to track the patterns of his thoughts by being vigilant about who he was listening to in his interior life.
“If we are not aware of our thoughts,” Sr. Mary Grace said, “we cannot properly discern them.”
Emphasizing the devil's tactics for disfiguring the beauty of the human person, the sisters noted that community and friendship with the Lord can serve as armor against the evil one.
“[The devil] desires that all of our struggles be kept in secret and to ourselves,” Sr. Mary Grace said, “because he knows the power of stepping into relationship — first with Jesus, and then into safe spaces with friends.”
Rather than carrying the wounds of the heart alone, the sisters emphasized the importance of surrendering one’s thoughts and struggles to the Lord.
“God created us not to have to necessarily internally keep the world running on our own shoulders,” Sr. Mary Grace said, “but our thoughts are meant to be shared.”
Reflecting on the meaning of Lent, the sisters also noted that the season prepares the faithful for the Paschal Mystery, when Christ overcame sin and death.
“We are leading up to the event that definitively in time and outside of time defeated evil. We are coming up to watch the great defeat.”
Sr. Mary Grace encouraged listeners to invite Christ into the struggles of the mind, particularly during the season of Lent.
“In Lent too, yes our thoughts we want to be directors of them, we want to be masters of them, but sometimes the battle is outside our reach,” Sr. Mary Grace said. “The storm goes on, but here is an invitation that we actually can allow Jesus to enter into that desert, and receive the Spirit in the midst of the craziness going on outside.”