I have to confess to not being into this much in the past. I think part of that is the silly reason of thinking it is a "bit too catholic" for my liking. But then I thought that, this is not really a sufficient reason to reject something that has been part of the church's life and practice for centuries.
So what is it about? Well it is really a time of preparing ourselves to remember once again the great sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection at Easter. The mode of "preparation" for celebrating this, is one of repentance and searching our hearts, and making special times for prayer. You might argue that repentance, self examination and prayer should be the stuff of the normal Christian life, and you would be right. But surely there is nothing against having a special focus on this for a particular period.
Many have fasted during lent, or abstained from some particular thing - alcohol, chocolate, movies, etc etc. The idea here is that denying ourselves something will help us to remember to repent, examine and pray. Not a bad idea I guess.
The only dangers I can see in this is thinking a. that the abstaining is a good work in itself, b. that good works might earn us favour with God, and c. that we only need to repent for these 40 days in the year. But provided we remember we are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus, we won't be in any great danger of this.
Perhaps the Book of Common Prayer collect (special prayer) for Ash Wednesday will help us:
Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let me know what you think?
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I know what you mean; I think I've sort of written off Lent as a strange Catholic ritual, and therefore ignored it. A girl in my Bible study last night actually said she was taking things UP during Lent this year; she's determined to have a really disciplined time of Bible study and prayer, and develop a better fitness regimen. I liked that idea of doing rather than just abstaining.
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