Icon (Close Menu)

8 meditations on Lent

Lent is a breath taken before shouts of adoration – the Church’s magnificent inhalation.

Lent is a wound, a thorn in the flesh of the gods of our own making, an interruption in the ebb and flow of our most revered secular liturgies.

Lent is the imposition of ashes, a chorus of dust and dry bone, a prayer for living breath.

Lent is a voice crying in the wilderness, a finger stabbing in the direction of Golgotha.

Lent is submission to the cost of discipleship, liberation from the price of self-indulged freedom.

Lent is an interlude, a darkness preceding the terrible brightness.

Lent is nothing, a clattering cymbal, if not for the one whose destruction and vindication bid the foe become beloved.

Lent is an affirmation and an invitation. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Top headlines. Every Friday.

MOST READ

Classifieds

Most Recent

The Church’s Son

From “On St. Elias and the Widow Gathering Two Sticks of Wood” (ca. 500-542) Let us further see where...

Protestant and Catholic Newman

In this clearly written book, T.L. Holtzen explains why the complicated debates about the doctrine of justification before and after the Reformation still matter today.

S. African Priests Protest Rejection of Same-Sex Blessings

The Rev. Canon Chris Ahrends: “It’s time for a form of ‘civil disobedience’ within the church — call it ‘ecclesiastical disobedience’ — by clergy of conscience.”

St. David’s of Denton, Texas, Celebrates Larger Space

The Rev. Paul Nesta, rector: “We aren’t here today because a building was consecrated [in the 1950s]. We’re here because a people were consecrated and given good work to advance.”