Ordinary Eve
Lent
How do we approach reading the Bible? And more Why
do we read it?
This is the recommended opening for the service on Ash Wednesday, the opening of the season of Lent,
"Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.
At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing for Baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the Church's fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.
I invite you, therefore, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy word."
This is quite a clear explanation of what the season is about and why we should mark it, but doesn't really address what fasting is, what good reading is, how we can act and why it's good for us to do all these things at one particular time of year.
Fasting
Fasting can mean literally denying yourself food or it can me abstaining from something you really like such as women's magazines, unfairly traded goods, alcohol or chocolate. The point is that abstaining from something can really focus your mind on it, you can realise how attached you have become to that thing. Perhaps by noticing the times when you really want the thing you are fasting from you can see how you use it to support you rather than turning to God or perhaps it can open your eyes to what life would be like without it, without enough food, without the privileges of luxury goods and clothes, and you can gain an insight into how life is for the poor and the outcast.
Reading and Prayer
It sounds obvious, but it means you don't have to do all the thinking on your own! There are a lot of people out there who have the God-given gift of communication and who are further on in their spiritual journey. Their ideas, experiences, insights and advice can help us to understand our own relationship with God or to deal with difficulties in both our spiritual and our every day lives. Often we don’t have the time to devote to reading in the rest of the year, we know we should but we can't form the habit. Focusing on doing something for a short period can help us to commit to it, it feels like a smaller ask. Find out more with our suggestions on reading the Bible.
Reading can inspire us to pray and prayer is another key feature of Lent. Essentially we are asked to draw closer to God and it's very difficult to do that without praying. Prayer can be a simple activity, the easiest thing to remember is to try and set a time every day to pray, to let God do the work and not worry about feeling "holy", and to "pray as you can, not as you can't". Find out more with our suggestions on prayer .
Try it you might like it!
Action
Lent isn't all about navel gazing, it's about action. That can be simple actions such as those suggested by the daily text from the Church of England, it can be giving the money you would have spent on chocolate, or magazines to a charity, it can be committing to volunteering or to campaigning on behalf of a charity, and can be as simple as sending emails. Check out Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Jubilee Debt Campaign.
What's the point?
The point is that Easter is the most important event in the Church's calendar, in the history of the world and in our lives. It sets us free. It was also a time of great pain for Jesus and for the whole creation and it's appropriate for us to acknowledge and try to share some of the preparation that Jesus went through. To try in however small a way to say to God, "thank you for what you did for me."
Katie Streten
