With Shrove Tuesday approaching midway through February, our thoughts may turn to being “shriven”—that is to say, to the beautiful sacrament of confession.

Recently, I found myself trying to explain to an acquaintance why I was on my way to confession despite not seeming “like that big of a sinner” (if only they knew…). The image that came to mind, probably because I had just come from undertaking this task, was the importance of regularly cleaning out my car. I don’t mean to say our souls are anything like a mechanical vehicle, but they are a manifestation of our pilgrim lives in some sense. Big safety issues—brake pads, tires, and functioning headlights—like big sins, make it hard to stay in control or on the road. But in between times, it’s not a bad idea to declutter. If we leave all the miscellaneous rubbish to rot for too long, we forget what a lot of junk we are carrying around, filling up the compartments that we could be using for good and useful things. Plus, you don’t want to leave any forgotten snacks (bad habits?) to go moldy in a corner, stinking the place up.

Perhaps gardening metaphors work better where the soul is concerned. But however you envisage your spiritual life, you have my prayers for a good start to Lent with something akin to that “cleaned-out car feeling”!