As part of an intentional search for more explicitly Anglican Lent resources (see my appeal from yesterday), I revisited last year’s Lenten Anglican Carnival. (I’ll be posting more links from that soon). In the comments there I found the link excellent reflection on “the heart of Lent” from Fr. Steve of Christ our Hope Anglican Church in Fort Collins, CO.
Here’s an excerpt:
So what is the heart of Lent?
At its core Lent is about awakening. It is about shaking off the slumber of the ‘Old Man’ as St. Paul calls it in order to prepare the person: body, soul and spirit to greet with Joy the celebration of Resurrection Life at Easter. Of course the student of Scripture will be quick to point out that the joy of Resurrection Sunday is meant for the Christian every day of the year and of course this is true. The breaking in of Christ’s new and glorious Kingdom, the defeat of death once and for all and the enlivening of our souls could never be isolated to a yearly commemoration. And yet, how often do we find that while these are truths that come readily to mind and flow readily off our lips, they are truths that we in our busy and harried post-modern lives seldom seem to live in light of. And so we become dulled to these truths. We are like leaden-limbed men and women struggling to shake off a deep and seemingly satisfying slumber. Instead of heeding the call of Christ to seek His Kingdom above all else, we are driven by our own desires and impulses or those of somebody else. We need something to awaken us from this deluded dream walk.
What Lent offers us in remedy to this spiritual malaise is a saturating dose of reality. To awaken we must first become aware of the true state of things.
Read the whole entry here – it really is worth the time!
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