An invitation to Lent

“I invite you, therefore, 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.” (BCP, 265)

Dear Friends, 

These are, in my estimation, some of the more beautiful and wondrous words in our Book of Common Prayer. This invitation is a door held open to a Lent lived purposefully and deeply. I think too often our response as a people to Lent is a sense of obligation --perhaps a deep sigh of reluctant capitulation followed by a little list-making action of the "What am I willing to give up?" variety. Too often, our orientation to the season is about how we are going to get through it, rather than how we might let it get through to us.

At our Ash Wednesday Zoom Service for Children and Families, I watched as ashes were smeared and signs of the cross were made on many a smiling face. Sisters ashed sisters. Parents made the sign of the cross on their little ones' foreheads. And I couldn't help but think: this, this is what it's all about. Life and gratitude, joy and grace, relationships rooted in the love of God.

No one would deny that our children are beloved. And yet, we are all too often willing to deny our own belovedness. As if, through age, our identity somehow belongs less to God and more to the culture that surrounds us. Lent would say no. It invites us instead to examine our interior life. Not so that we can shame ourselves for all of the ways that we have fallen short, but so that we might discover our true identity. Beloved children of God.

In the words of Father Michael Marsh: "That is where the self reflection comes in. Lent invites us to look at the ways in which we have allowed our fears, attitudes, behaviors, our accomplishments, successes and failures, as well as the opinions of others to tell us who we are, to separate us from God, ourselves, and each other. Lent invites us to repent of, fast from, and let go of those false identities and recover our true identity as God’s holy people made in the image and likeness of God." 

May we accept with open hearts the invitation to a Holy Lent.

Faithfully, 

RevMo Crystal Hardin