To really live
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Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.
- from the Ash Wednesday liturgy
A reporter from the Sentinel called me on Monday to talk about Ash Wednesday. His article about online Ash Wednesday services will be just one of many articles in the past year that have focused on how area churches have been adapting our usual traditions because of the pandemic. I told him that Lent seems to be the most intentional season for people of faith. It’s a season in which we take on new spiritual practices or fast from old habits. It is a season tailor made to work on at home, and that is what we are suggesting our parishioners focus on this year - their prayer and worship lives at home.
The bidding prayer at the start of the Ash Wednesday service invites us “in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.“ Lent is a time to examine ourselves searchingly, to stretch ourselves outside our normal comfort zones, and to fast from our usual habits in order to make room for God in new ways.
I suspect that we’ve all had plenty of opportunities to stretch ourselves outside our comfort zones in the past year, and many of us have probably also had more than the usual amount of time for self examination in the quiet time we’ve had at home. And as for giving up our usual habits, well, we’ve pretty much had a whole year of fasting from all kinds of things. So this year, thinking of Lent primarily as a season of fasting and self-denial seems almost repetitive, considering the circumstances we’re living in. So how can we envision Lent in a new way this year and make it a unique season of spiritual deepening?
Our diocesan Lent resources page suggests that instead of thinking of Lent as primarily as a fast this year, maybe we could imagine it as a:
Feast – what will we savor?
Pilgrimage – what is our holy destination? what will God reveal along the way?
Wilderness Adventure – what are the mountains and valleys? how might we find water, build fires, spend time outdoors?
Retreat – how will we experience silence and reflection?
Lament – what is the grief we need to express? what is on our “wailing wall”?
Honeymoon – how can we fall in love with Jesus again?
Sabbath – how will we rest?
Ash Wednesday reminds us each year of our own mortality. And when you allow yourself to remember that you are but dust and to dust you shall return, it shakes you into recognizing the gift that today really could be. In this way, Ash Wednesday is a call to really live today. So perhaps that’s another good way to consider how we’ll practice a Holy Lent. How can you choose to really live this Lent?
Worship and prayer at home has become more central to many of us during this pandemic-tide. I invite you imagine a new way to practice a Holy Lent this year at home, and look forward to hearing from you how it has enriched your relationship with Christ and with life.
The readings for Ash Wednesday are here
The readings for this Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, are here
