Sisters and Brothers in Christ

On Ash Wednesday an invitation will be extended to you at our service of Holy Eucharist and imposition of Ashes. "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." If you are unable to take part in one of our Ash Wednesday observances then consider this your invitation.

How do you approach Lent? It can certainly be marginalized in the sense of "I’m giving up chocolate!" or "I’ll give up beer." To observe a holy Lent is to take on a discipline that just might change your life.

Perhaps the best starting place for our discipline is laid out in Book II of the Mathnawi (939-41) where Jelaluddin Rumi wrote:

What do you really possess,
and what have you really gained?

What pearls have you brought up
from the depth of the sea?

On the day of death,
bodily senses will vanish:
Do you have the spiritual light
to accompany your heart?

When dust fills these eyes in the grave,
will your grave shine bright?

 

On Ash Wednesday we see our destiny in the ashes that are placed on our foreheads with the words, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." With those somber words comes the realization that everything this world offers as important–power, money, prestige–are at best fleeting and flattering only to the ego.

A true discipline of Lent seeks to develop that unique human being that God created and animated with Sacred Breath. Do you know that person? Does that person make the important decisions in your life or do you abdicate to the whims of the ego?

"Oh, I’m giving up desert!" Laisez faire Lenten discipline will result in fluff and superficiality. Fight through the superfluous hee-hawing of the ego! Do you have the courage to accept the invitation to the observance of a holy Lent? Of course you do! Do you have the will to undertake the observance of a holy Lent? Well…do you?

Joel t