Marking Lent 2010 A+D
The Church marks off forty days (not counting the Sundays) of special preparation called “Lent,” which begins with Ash Wednesday (Feb. 17). It is a time reminiscent of Our Lord’s fasting in the desert for forty days and the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness for forty years. During Lent, especially, the Church urges her members to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Even as true repentance is not simply feeling sorry, but is a turning away from sin and toward God, or is sorrow over sin and at the same time faith in Jesus, so likewise, Lent is not so much a time of simply “giving things up” as it is a time for adding things that increase our awareness of God’s mercy in Christ Jesus.
What we give up, as a Church, are the Alleluias and the Gloria in Excelsis (“Glory be to God on High”). These songs of praise are muted during Lent, not because we are sad, but because we are sober and so that they would return on Easter with greater exuberance. For a feast to be truly satisfying, you must be hungry.
Though it seems, in a way, counter-intuitive, one of the things we add are soup suppers on Wednesday evenings preceding the service at 7:00 p.m. The soup suppers begin at 6:00 p.m. The idea is that this will make it easier for busy families to attend the service and also provide some fellowship time for us.
Why not mark this Lent in some way, by making a Lenten resolution of sorts, picking up some discipline or duty as a way of remembering the time and preparing for Easter? While it might seem self-serving, Lent is a great time to diet or pick up an exercise routine. While those things might have physical benefits, if done prayerfully and deliberately, they can also have spiritual benefits. Why not set yourself to attend every Sunday and Wednesday from now until Easter? If nothing else, why not at least pledge to attend all the services of Holy Week, including Maundy Thursday (April 1) at 7:00 p.m., Good Friday (April 2) at 7:00 p.m., and culminating with the Easter Sunday service (April 4) at 10:30 a.m.?