Lent was a big deal growing up in a household of practicing Catholics. I recall fasting from meat twice a week and placing the money we saved on our dinners in a little cardboard box labeled “Operation Rice Bowl.” On Sunday we’d bring that box to church and add it to the barrel of community funds used to feed people locally and across the globe. I remember my mom trying not to eat chocolate. And the heated debate over a middle school dance that fell on Good Friday, a day that we usually attended a lengthy mass. We also celebrated Seder meals in our church community.
What I took away from those early years was that Lent was special. It was different – a different rhythm, a new focus, a deeper level of attentiveness to God through fasting and prayer.
As I have now spent many more years in the Reformed tradition than in my Catholic upbringing, I have navigated the season of Lent in various ways. An Ash Wednesday sermon I heard at an Episcopal church 12 years ago that was most helpful and memorable regarding Lent. The priest said that when considering a Lenten practice, you might try this rubric of three questions:
1. Will it change me?
2. Will it deepen life in Christ?
3. Am I willing to continue beyond Lent?
These questions satisfied what I was longing for that giving up chocolate was not providing. They reminded me that a Lenten journey is a discipleship journey. It is a season to examine our relationship with God, which of course involves our relationship with ourselves and others. A period built into our church calendar year beginning Ash Wednesday and spanning toward Easter.
Lenten Pilgrimage
The Lenten pilgrimage is not, however, tidy or linear. Nor is it the same for each person. We are, after all, unique individuals. The journey is complex – conversion and repentance, renewal and rebirth, the emptying of ourselves and the filling of the emptiness with eternity. The pilgrimage is an exercise in following Christ, making a journey that Christ has already made. Our aim is not to develop greater spiritual competence or enlightenment. But to be led and remember the life of Christ, his ministry, death and resurrection and to also face ourselves. As we respond to Jesus’ loving invitation, we will leave behind some of the things that are “home” to us. That is the nature of a pilgrimage, to leave our homes, even let go of some of our attachments. But the irony is that we discover the journey into the heart of the triune God is our journey home.
How will you be drawn into the depth of life in Christ and what might be transformed in you? And what might lie beyond?
Each Monday we will post a signpost for Lent for you to encourage your journey.
Travel mercies,
Renée Sundberg, pastor of Union Church (on behalf of the Union Staff)
Here is a Lent Resource: https://pray-as-you-go.org/article/hope-and-the-nearness-of-god-lent-retreat-2022