Last Minute Instructions for Lent
Lent is drawing near! The word “Lent” comes from the Old English “lencten,” meaning springtime, when the days lengthen. You’ve probably already noticed that! Lent spans the 40 days, excluding Sundays, leading up to the great Paschal Feast of Easter.
It is always celebrated in the Western Church on the First Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. The days are neither long nor short during this period. Why this connection to the moon and the sun, to seasons and daylight?
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Living in Christ’s Restored World
Ancient Christians understood themselves to live in the cosmos, inside of God’s good creation. They understood that Christ’s salvation did not only extend to the human soul, but to the whole of creation. Celtic Christians, for instance, incorporate animals, the sun, the moon, and trees into their carvings and manuscripts, reflecting their innate understanding of the natural world. This is not an expression of pantheism, but the knowledge that all of creation is created by God, to be redeemed by God, and that all of it serves as a signpost to us not only of his goodness, but of the very doctrines of the Christian Faith.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:17-19
New life springs forth from dead seeds, limbs stripped of their leaves bring forth new leaves every spring. To see this is to be catechized in a Gospel which, as opposed to rejecting creation, speaks of its being reconciled. As Paul writes, that in Jesus,
… all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:19–20
Lent is Dying to Rise Again through Baptism
It is essential to acknowledge that Lent is about dying. However, it is also vital to recognize that Lent is about asking God to bring about new life within us. We are people who died with the Lord Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism and who rise with him to a newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). Salvation is not a one-time occurrence; instead, it begins there and continues throughout one’s life.
When we fast, it is about desires and impulses dying within us, making room for new life to emerge. When we give something up, it is to make room for something else, for something better, something good, something life-giving. The original 40 days of Lent served as a time in which those preparing for baptism underwent a season of fasting and penitence. Lapsed sinners also joined if they wished to rejoin the Church. All Christians, who solidarized with them, and offered these days as a time of fasting, prayer, and self-denial.
Lenten Preparations Begin on Ash Wednesday
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, a day of total abstinence from food, usually until sundown for those who are able. By tradition, on Fridays in Lent, Christians fast from meat of any kind and have attempted to delay their first meal as much as possible in remembrance of the Friday on which the Lord was crucified. In our house, the foods of Lent become extremely simple—no dessert, not much sugar, and very little meat. We’ll often cook chickens on Sundays and make rich broth from the remains, adding beans or vegetables. This, of course, means a gigantic drop in our food budget! We save much for the Easter feast, and some we give away.
Examples of Lenten Disciplines
You might consider taking on one or more of several Lenten disciplines and self-denials:
- Taking cold showers in the morning.
- Restricting coffee intake or eliminating milk from coffee.
- Walking to work or riding a bike.
- Avoid buying any new clothes or any new goods at all.
- Getting your garden ready by planting vegetables and herbs.
- Take a weekly retreat for a few hours.
- Take up the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer.
- Cut out television.
- Restrict music listening; play an instrument or sing instead!
- Take on productive work like cleaning your house, changing your own oil, sewing your own clothes, and ironing your own shirts.
- Make time for mental prayer; Lectio Divina and the Ignatian Method come to mind.
The purpose of these disciplines, again, is to make room for new life and actually take up that which is life-giving. Above all, this takes prayer. Prayerless spiritual discipline is devoid of its true purpose, being that of drawing you up into the life of God. As the days of Lent begin, may God renew you by prayer and fasting, in anticipation of Easter!
Image: Gastón Pérez from Pixabay
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