Fr. Clooney's Yoga and Lent series concludes with a Holy Saturday reflection on samadhi (a state of concentration) alongside Jesus' death and resurrection.

When Patanjali writes of “holding” and “meditating,” he turns out to be offering us a gift, first regarding the practice – we learn to be moral, detached, to sit, breath, let go, attend, hold our gaze, just there – and then regarding the inner states of contemplation to which we aspire as Christians.

Lent is in part about stepping away from ordinary concerns. Jesus said, “There is need of only one thing” (Luke 10.41), and these Lenten reflections are dedicated to that proposition.

Fr. Clooney shares a discussion on the 8 limbs of yoga and how they may be incorporated into our Lenten observances.

In comparing the words of the Apostle Paul and the Sutras, Fr. Clooney suggests "that we put aside the competitive angle in all this, and presuppose for now that Christ and yoga are not at odds. Yoga need not threaten or diminish what Christ does in us."

This section of the Sutras may beneficially remind us that that what may be required is a sober, steady gaze at the mass of afflictions that beset the Church today — the problem of our loud words and clumsy deeds, particularly at the top.

It is Lent once more, and as I’ve often done in the past, I will take up a theme that I will return to every now and then between now and Easter. ... This time I will focus on what the Yoga Sutras ask us to do...