Keeping a good Lent (March 2022)

Dear Friends

March brings us back to Lent; another season of preparation for Easter. So, I thought I would trawl for a few juicy Lenten quotations just to get this month’s letter started. I found a few.

‘I kinda don't do guilt. I gave it up for Lent years ago.’ This is the rather refreshing take from Greg Boyle, American Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He founded Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest programme intervening in gang violence and rehabilitating gang members. Equally winsome, I like the somewhat older wisdom of St. Francis of Sales (1567-1622) who was Roman Catholic Bishop of Geneva around the time of the Protestant Reformation and who was noted for his gentle and kind approach to divisions within the Church around him. He said: “Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.’

In a spirit of patience, and trying to avoid too much guilt, we turn to Lent. It is, of course, the great penitential season because, as we look ahead to Easter we must also look ahead to Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Doing so reminds us, every year, that all is not well with us, within us or with the world. As Paul so powerfully and pointedly puts it to the Romans: ‘ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.’ (Romans 5: 5-6). The cross stands as stark reminder that sin and the estrangement from God, one another and the world that sin brings, meets its answer as Christ offers himself for us all. Lent will invite us to think deeply about who we are and how we are; about whether all is well with our souls.

How, then, might we keep a good Lent? Is it all about giving up chocolate or coffee or something? For some of us, perhaps. The giving up of things echoes the fasting that is one of the season’s traditions. In this giving up we get little reminders, daily, that we want to turn more towards God and less towards filling ourselves with all the world offers. My quotation hunt brings us Rowan Williams: “The self-denial involved in the period of Lent isn’t about just giving up chocolates or beer; it’s about trying to give up a certain set of pictures of God which are burned into our own selfish wants.” Giving up something might be a great way to embrace Lent.

Here’s another thought. What if Lent is, above all, a time to grow? Here’s Mother Teresa of Calcutta: ‘As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus’ thirst… He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.’ And what if our growing might happen as we take something on as much as we might give something up? Here, in no particular order, are ten possibilities for things we might take up this Lent:

1. Give ourselves five minutes of silence every day of Lent. Do nothing but sit quietly. Just listen. What happens? Might the Holy Spirit be speaking in your stillness? Maybe five minutes can stretch to something longer as Lent unfolds?

2. Join something that helps make the world a better place. Maybe start a regular donation to that charity you’ve never quite got round to supporting. Sign up to some online news service about a topic you feel matters. Get involved in a community project. Volunteer for something at church.

3. Read a good book during Lent. Pick a novel that explores the depth of human experience. Read about some significant part of history you don’t know much about. Discover more about where you live. And wonder at what God might be revealing.

4. Dive deep into the Bible. Here’s a thought. Combined, the gospels of Mark and Luke have 40 chapters. Why not start with Mark (the oldest gospel), read a chapter a day, and move on to read through Luke? Alternatively, why not pick a much shorter biblical book and just read a few verses each day of Lent? But really dwell upon them. Maybe start the day with them, read them again at lunchtimes and again in the evening. See what emerges as they become a chorus woven through your day. Malachi, which ends our Old Testaments, just has four chapters, one chapter a week. And these aren’t long chapters (14 verses, 17 verses, 18 verses and just 4 verses in the final chapter). This gives us 53 verses for 40 days, just one or two each day. Lovely!

5. Make a new friendship. Is there a neighbour you could say hello to for the first time? Is there a shop worker you tend to encounter regularly; could you make a point of saying hello? What about the local Big Issue seller? Or someone you see regularly at church but haven’t really met yet? What if Lent meant love growing in the world?

6. Take up a new spiritual practice. How about using the ancient practice of examen? Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), in founding the Jesuits, set this as one of the few rules of prayer at mid-day and in the evening for all Jesuits. It takes us through five simple stages: get comfortable and quiet and become aware of God’s presence; review what has happened so far that day with gratitude; pay attention to your emotions; choose one feature of the day and turn this into prayer; look toward tomorrow.

7. Do something with art. If you draw and paint, how about getting a nice sketch book and doing something artistic each day? They don’t have to be huge works, but just a quick drawing that gives you joy. When I do this sort of thing I often deliberately leave space on the page to add comments and thoughts later in the day so that the art and the words talk to each other.

8. Do something with someone else’s art. Maybe you have a book or two with art in them. Why not make time to simply look and enjoy and wonder what might emerge? Or dive into a museum website or follow the work of a particular artist on the internet? Or buy some postcards and put one somewhere for each week, or if you have more for each few days of Lent. Let the images prompt you in some way to draw closer to God.

9. Use music to create space in your day as you enjoy the listening. Why not set aside a time each day to listen to something and then have a little notebook to jot down your responses and thoughts afterwards? Turn it into prayer.

10. Create your own new spiritual practice for Lent. Use your imagination, opportunities and time in ways that only you can. Maybe it will involve food, or walking, or TV, or phone calls, or pen and paper, or meeting up with people, or joining an online Lent group, or… you can make it happen.

Summing some of this up, here’s a word from writer Elizabeth Hyndman ‘There are three elements that are almost always part of Lent: prayer, giving something up, and giving something back.’ Perhaps you’ve already got your Lent nicely planned. If so, God bless you in it all. If not, maybe something here will be a bit of help.

Let the Dutch Roman Catholic priest Henri Nouwen offer a final prayer for our Lent: ‘O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.’

Wishing you peace and blessing this Lent, and always,

Neil