A LENTEN PRIMER

LENT begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday. Growing up Roman Catholic in the 60's and having the experience of being an altar boy,Lent has left an indelible impression upon me. In fact, though I freely chose to express my Christian faith by affiliating with a Protestant denomination and congregation many years ago, I continue to maintain that one of Catholicism's great gifts is the spirituality associated with the seasons....and that includes the season of Lent. The recognition of this has led many Protestant congregations to highlight devotional practices that long ago were seen as possessed solely by their Catholic friends and colleagues....

I thought it would be helpful to start off with a simple LENTEN PRIMER in which I attempt to highlight the heart and essence of thios season. I encourage YOU to write about what Lent HAS MEANT or MIGHT MEAN to you....here in the 21st century.

Let's begin with this.....WHAT IS LENT? Well, it's a 40 day season of PREPARING for Easter. In the earliest days of Christianity, that meant the church preparing adult candidates to be baptized and in so doing to renew their own identity as baptized Christians. It really remains so today.

Over the years, Lent evolved into a living remembrance of the suffering and death of Jesus and the notion of coming to terms with and sharing in this suffering. Certain devotional emphases became identified with Lent, ALL of which are valuable parts of our Christian life 365 days per year. Generally speaking, therefore, Lenten devotion is associated with:
PRAYER
FASTING~ the value of which is often misunderstood..
ALMSGIVING~giving to those in need, caring for the poor, etc

In our contemporary lives, it's important to ask how Lenten devotional practices can help us get to the heart of what it means to be a believer, in particular, a disciple of Jesus.
We will try to get at that in different ways, recognizing that properly understood, adapting certain prayer emphases, fasting or abstaining, and setting money and time aside for the needy can be important spiritual practices. Improperly understood, they can become silly superstitions, a concern that has always been present in the Protestant approach to Lent.

Hope this is a good start...

PB