Lent Thought

"I remembered reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. 'I hope your stay is a blessed one' said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. 'If you need anything, let us know and we'll teach you how to live without it.' "

(Philip Yancey Prayer)

Lent

O Lord our God

grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart;

that so desiring, we may seek and find you;

and so finding, may love you;

and so loving, may hate those sins

                from which you have delivered us;

through Jesus Christ our Lord     (St. Anselm, 1109)



That's it until Easter, though if you want to make me rejoice before then, please visit this page. 

A month and a half of Sundays - Adrian Chiles' Lent Challenge

So, a mixed bag, as were the priests. A third of them I found to be great, with a handful quite life-changingly brilliant. Another third were sort of OK. The rest were pretty hopeless, not least because I often couldn't actually hear what they were saying. And a handful were grumpy to the point of malevolence.

Spiritually, if I'm to really "connect" at Mass, I need a good priest to help me. And by good I mean, first and foremost, that they should look pleased to be there and pleased that we're there. Often they speak of great "joy" while looking as bored as swimming pool attendants.

Secondly, with the liturgy - essentially the same script which they do day in, day out - the best of them find a way of making it sound fresh. As the inestimable Father Paul Addison of Our Lady of Delours in Kersal put it to me: "The clue's in the word; communion is all about communicating." And the same is obviously true of the sermon. One of the beauties of daily Mass is, frankly, its brevity - invariably less than half an hour. Sometimes the sermon is dispensed with altogether, but often it just takes the form of a thought or two, which I find much easier to get my head round than one of Sunday's lengthy orations.

Adrian Chiles on his 46 days in 46 different churches. Worth reading the whole thing, great perspectives. And encouraging that he concludes it was one of the most rewarding and quietly intense 46 days of my life. 

Offline

see you after Lent

Lent

Closing down for Lent, there's a good post here from someone who's giving up Facebook for Lent:

This lent I want to challenge you to think about giving up something that sucks your time, something that is bad for you or something that doesn’t actually really matter to you, and put something that you enjoy, something that brings you life in its place.

hope you have a life-giving Lent and a joyful Easter. 

Blent

Think I'll just be quiet for a while, see you after Easter.

Enjoy the Silence

all going quiet here until Easter, hope you have a holy and renewing Lent. Enouraging to see Carlos Tevez getting the penitential season off to a good start.

Lenternet

Adrian Chatfield at the Simeon Centre has some excellent thoughts to get started in thinking about how to

mark Lent this year.

Tear Funds Carbon Fast has a daily action for each day in Lent. Living simply, so that others may simply live.

Si Smiths superb cartoon meditation '40' is still available from Proost. Recommended for any Ash Wednesday events you might be involved in.

and a motivational cartoon from Dave Walker. The old ones are the best.

See you in 40.

I'm taking a break from blogging for a bit, and will be back in action, God willing, in late April.

Thanks to Tim Chesterton for inspiration.

I've actually given up blogging for the last two Lents - and the last Advent as well - and found it amazingly beneficial. I not only stopped blogging myself, I also stopped reading other people's blogs. I found a wonderful sense of freedom in being able to do so. I had way more time for conversations with family and friends, and did some good reading as well.

I also found out some things about myself - one of them being that I have the classic blogger's symptom of finding it more and more difficult to read long chapters in books and follow sustained arguments over more than a few pages. As with a kid raised on Sesame Street, blogging and reading blogs is giving me a short attention span. I need periodic periods of abstinence to temper that effect.

If you're feeling with withdrawal symptoms then there are over 950 posts in my archive, and I defy anyone to get through all of those during Lent.

Alternatively, you could try the blog Philosphy and Life, which has lots of interesting pieces on it, for example:
We are becoming caught in a vicious spiral of complaint and counter-complaint in which pretty much everyone feels persecuted. This is dangerous for it leads to a society that feeds on itself in ever deepening feelings of resentment. But take a step back from the antagonism, and ask how this has come about? It's a product of the plural world in which we now live, and it is that pluralism which must be addressed – as opposed to just the complaints.

Or if you have only a 5 second attention span, I recommend Graphjam, which is a bit like Indexed but done with a computer.

I fear that giving up offering unsolicited advice for Lent is going to be harder than giving up blogging....

Have a good one.

Blog Ugly - a Lent Challenge

Thanks to Mike from our church for capturing my 40th birthday in all it's glory. That's the last time I'm wearing that shirt.

Here's a challenge for fellow bloggers, just in time for Lent - post the worst picture you have of yourself on your blog. It is the season of humility and self-whatsit after all.

By the way the thing at the back is a giant '40' made out of photos of me at various stages, made with love, care and great secrecy by my Dearly Beloved. The annoying thing is that I'm younger in all of them. And yes, that's me with two bowls of pudding. I'd hidden the other 3.

Blogging Lent

I'll be posting a Lent Challenge on Ash Wednesday (correction: posted already), but I wondered what the season of abstinence, preparation and self-examination might look like for bloggers. In no particular order:
1. Don't blog at all.
2. Repost only articles where you've been proven wrong
3. Let your words be few: keep blogging to a maximum word count. That'll be Twitter then.
4. Blog something completely different at least once a week. So if you're in the habit of critiquing other people, post a 100% appreciation of someone you admire.
5. Don't criticise anyone except yourself.
6. If you have nothing really to say, say so, or even better, don't.
7. Just post pictures.
8. Find a spiritual classic to read during Lent, and blog one simple quote a day from it.
9. Don't do any Google searches, to limit the carbon impact of your internet use.
10. Use your blog to thank one person a day through Lent.
11. Give up doing lists of 10.

this is just off the top of my head, feel free to add your own in the comments.

I remember reading a while ago that, if you're thinking of giving something up for Lent, to try to identify something which has a hold of you, which has become 'compulsive'. Do you feel pulled towards it, or are you free to do without it? I must admit that blogging has become a bit compulsive for me of late, and I'm tempted (perhaps 'tempted' is the wrong word!) to go for no. 1, even though I'll find it very difficult.

Lent Resources 2009

Proost have some new materials for Lent - worship visuals, a book version of Si Smiths wonderful '40' video meditation, (you can see some of the illustrations here, or visit his online journal which has some other very powerful material), or just try out one of their Pocket Liturgy books. Jonny Baker gives a bit more info about these.

CMS have a good, brief list of resources.

Love Life Live Lent: Transform Your World is a 40-day book for lent, with an idea a day for how to mark the season. From the blurb:

Each week, there is:

• A home and family action
• An action for work, school or college, or the place where you spend most of the day!
• An environment action
• A community-focused action
• A global action (supplied by Christian Aid)
• An action to encourage you to take time out for prayer and stillness in the week

looks good, and affordable (£1 each or 85p each in a multipack) sample page here, and a good website here with resources for families, churches and schools.

Previous Collections on this blog at:

Lent Resources 1

Lent Resources 2

or follow the 'Lent' tab.

It just so happens that the number 40 has a particular significance for me today, but that's another story, involving large quantities of cake. Good job it's not Lent yet.

When is an apology not an apology?

When it's made by the Australian PM, in a public event, but there aren't yet appropriate actions to back it up? It's a fairly new government, so they probably need more time:

After years of calling for an official recognition of the wrongs done to
them by settlers, many Aboriginal leaders and communities (“the first
Australians”) were today rejoicing at the gesture. But they point out that
concrete resources are needed to address the legacy of historical injustices.

When it's made by the Archbishop of Canterbury

I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity in either that text
or in the radio interview, and for any misleading choice of words that has
helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large and
especially among my fellow Christians . It's Lent, and one of the great
penitential phrases of the Psalms will be in all our minds – 'Who can tell how
oft he offendeth? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults'.

...but heavily qualified, since there are major questions over whether he has anything to apologise for, or whether it is wilful misinterpretation by the media which has done more damage. The most pathetic sight of the last few days has been the BBC news trying to find somebody, anybody, in the CofE who wants Rowan Williams to resign, in a desperate attempt to keep the story running, covering up the fact that they don't currently employ anyone sufficiently knowledgeable about Islam and Christianity to really deal with the story properly.

When it's made by Dwain Chambers, who apologises, pays the penalty, changes his behaviour, and then is too good on his return to the sport. There's the question about whether he's sorry he did drugs, or sorry he got caught, but he's certainly got guts.

Tis the season to be sorry, being Lent, and maybe Gary Chapmans 'The 5 languages of apology' can help us here. There are, he says, 5 broad ways in which we apologise. Different ones come naturally to different people, and resonate with different people:
Express Regret
Accept Responsibility
Make Restitution
Geniunely Repent
Request Forgiveness

This suggests that, unless we do most of them all in one go, there will always be people who feel we haven't properly apologised. Drat.

Inspiration for Lent

Struggling with that diet? Have a look here, brilliant clip from possibly the only funny comedian on the BBC at the moment, Peter Serafinowicz.

Depression at work

Quite a big piece in todays Times about depression at work, with several related articles. If you do a search for 'depression' on their site there have been quite a few articles recently, hopefully this is a straw in the wind for public acceptance of mental illness as a 'normal' illness. One striking section in the article says:

Workplace “stress” is now the second-biggest occupational health problem in the UK after musculoskeletal conditions and, according to a World Health Organisation report, “depression” is the fourth most significant cause of suffering and disability after heart disease, cancer and traffic accidents. By 2020 it will rank second, behind heart disease. It’s no surprise that calculations vary as to what this might cost British business in lost productivity. Different reports have put the annual cost at £3 billion, £9 billion and a massive £32 billion. But the extent of the problem is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that in 2006, BT admitted that it had about 500 people off sick with psychiatric problems every single day.

It's worth a read. It raises the 'tipping point' question. At what point do we get to a level of stress and dis-ease as a society that we start asking radical questions about the kind of society we have, and want to live in? At the moment we are still in treatment mode, rather than prevention mode. We'd rather manage the symtoms than tackle the disease. In fact, we don't even know what the disease is.

Libby Purves, in the same paper, may be on to something in her commending of Lenten abstinence, reigning in our appetites and 'putting the waiting back into wanting'. If you take it for granted that you can have everything you want, now, and with minimal effort, it becomes very hard to be really thankful for any of it. In Bono's words "I gave you everything you ever wanted/it wasn't what you wanted".

Fasting

A church member quizzed me about fasting yesterday, so with a couple of days to Lent, a few thoughts on the subject.

Fasting is something that Jesus did, and that he expected of his followers - 'when you fast' (Matthew 6:16). It was something which was part of normal spiritual life in Jesus day, and though he questioned the way in which some people fasted, he never queried the practice itself. It's therefore part of the normal Christian life.

Why Fast?
There seem to be a cluster of different reasons for fasting in the Scriptures:
1. Obedience - Jesus expects it, so we do it. There are some things it's good to just do because we're being obedient, rather than because we expect any benefit. Self-centredness needs to be fasted from too!
2. Intensity in prayer: Nehemiah fasts and prays before going to see the king about rebuilding Jerusalem. The Ninevites fast when repenting at Jonah's preaching. Fasting adds sincerity and weight to prayer, it's both a sign (to God and to ourselves) that we're serious about it, and it can make prayer itself more powerful and intense.
3. Spiritual battle: Jesus major fast - the 40 days in the wilderness - brings him into close quarters with the devil and his temptations. Sometimes fasting is an intense assault on evil, either within ourselves or within society.
4. Training: fasting trains our body to do without food, by exercising willpower and self-denial, we increase the strength our will, and our capacity to deny ourselves. It is a spiritual discipline, which makes us spiritually fitter
5. Physical well being: Daniel and his friends abstained from meat and rich food, and were physically better for it. This isn't a prime reason for fasting, but during the fasting process (especially longer fasts) toxins and other nasty stuff in the body is broken down and got rid of. In the short run, fasting from addictive substances like caffeine will give us a headache, but will help to break physical dependence.

Note: There are various medical reasons not to fast, so make sure you check these out before you think about it, and it's sensible to take some tips either from the books, or other people who've done it, before you start. Health and Safety announcement over!

How to Fast
If you're serious about fasting, then the best place to start is Richard Fosters classic 'Celebration of Discipline' chapter 4. There are also various online resources, (e.g. here, here, and an article from the Renovare website which puts spiritual disciplines in a wider context). Start small, drink lots of water, try to use the time freed up from preparing food/eating to pray, and be aware when you're with others that you might get stinky breath!

Love Life Live Lent

Love Life Live Lent 08 was launched a few days ago by various people. Here's the website, and here's Dave Walkers post on it, which explains a lot more so that I don't have to.

The basic idea seems to be a daily action every day for 50 days (Lent seems to have got longer since last year) which you can get via various bits of technology, or buy the booklet from the website. To be honest, you'll have to crack on with getting the booklet if you want it in time for Ash Wednesday, but if you're desperate to do something for lent then have a look here for some ideas.

Lent Resources 2: Lent Leaflet

Here's the text of the Lent leaflet we produced last year, feel free to copy. It should fit onto 2 sides of A5, or you could make a bigger leaflet by adding in daily readings for the 40 days.




Introduction
Lent is the season of 40 days from Ash Wednesday (6th February this year) to Palm Sunday. It recalls the 40 days of fasting and prayer which Jesus spent in the wilderness before his ministry began.
The day before Lent is traditionally a Carnival day (‘carnival’ literally means ‘farewell to meat’). Lent itself is a season of penitence, restraint, and reflection, and a preparation for the joyful celebration of Easter. It is a breathing out, in order to breathe in again, emptying out in order to be filled.
Traditionally, Lent is the time for looking more deeply at our own lives, in order that we become more like Jesus. It is a time for changing our ways to become more like Christ. The focus of all this is Good Friday and the Cross, to which Lent is the route.


Lent practices fall into 3 groups:
Detachment & Simplicity: giving up things which have a hold on us, and embracing a simpler lifestyle.
Repentance: examining ourselves, facing up to our sin and turning away from it. Jesus first words after returning from the wilderness are “Repent, and believe the good news!”
Spiritual practice: taking up things which will deepen our spiritual roots.


Below are some suggested ways in which you might keep Lent. Pick one or two, don’t try to do all of them! On the back page is a suggested Bible reading plan for the 40 days of Lent.

Some Suggestions for Keeping Lent
Detachment & Simplicity
- Fast on Fridays (if it’s medically ok for you to do so), or if fasting is not advisable, abstain from meat on that day.
- Abstain from meat for the whole of Lent
- Identify one thing that has a hold over you (e.g. surfing the Internet, watching TV, gossip, compulsive shopping, your mobile phone) and abstain from it.
- Only buy things with cash, in face-to-face situations.
- Don’t eat out/spend money on entertainment (make your own!), and give away the money you save.
- Go through your clothes and give away anything you’ve not worn in the last 12 months.
- Do a ‘creation tithe’ – cut down by 10% the burden you put on the earth in using fuel, creating pollution, consuming goods.
- Abstain from having the first word, or the last word, in conversation.
- Put a jar in an obvious place and put in 1 coin a day for charity, (good for kids!)

Repentance
- Spend time each day confessing your sins (you could use the Lord’s Prayer, and pause when you get to ‘forgive us our sins’, or the Jesus Prayer ‘ Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’)
- Wear something black or purple each day (the colours of mourning) as a sign of repentance.
- Think about someone whom you have wronged, and find a way to apologise and make amends.

Spiritual Practice
- Make the sign of the cross over your forehead, eyes, mouth, heart and hands each morning, placing Christ over what you think, see, say, feel and do.
- Put a cross in a prominent position in your house.
- Give thanks for every meal
- Spend 5m in silence each day – a good way to do this is to simply listen to your own breathing. Then let each breath out be a breathing out of sin and disobedience, and each breath in become a breathing in of forgiveness, grace, and the Holy Spirit.
- Identify something ordinary you do each day (e.g. boiling the kettle, walking the dog), and try to think about God as you do it.
- Do kind things for people, for no reason whatsoever.
- Come to worship 5m earlier, and spend time in prayer and preparation for the service. At the end of the service, spend a moment in prayer bringing to mind what God has said to you.
- Read a book that will deepen your faith.
- Listen to worship music in the car (or the bath!)

Remember: only pick one or two things. This is not a set of laws, it is about opening ourselves to the grace of God.

new Touching Base

If you want to find out what Yeovil dentists, the only Devonian who didn't drive past on the other side, and a Tyneside schoolboy who went to Poland to get a better education have in common, have a look at the Wardman Wire later today.

Final Extreme Pilgrim review to follow later.

Lent Resources 1

Various links to Lent resources:

The Methodist church have just launched a 'buy less' credit card for lent, full story here.

The Shaver of Mustard Seeds has a couple of good ideas.

If you want some prayers to use daily or weekly in Lent, have a look at this site. There's nothing quite like praying the same prayer for 40 days to get it into your bones.

Embody has some great ideas, not the usual sort of Lent stuff, around the theme of God, friends and enemies.

Churches together in Britain and Ireland have produced an interesting study resource, Pathways of Prayer, which explores different prayer traditions over the 6 weeks of Lent, and is linked in to some BBC programming during Lent. There are online group study notes for each week, Lenten daily readings, and links to sites on discipleship and spiritual seeking. Good resource.

CRI/Voice, who I'd never heard of (but then that goes for 99.9% of US religious organisations) have an excellent page on Lenten symbolism and practices. Unfortunately the link to daily readings hasn't been updated to 2008.

Finally Barnabas in Churches has lots of ideas for Lent - worship, school assemblies, practical things to do, and has a resouce 'A-Cross the World' looking at the cross in 40 different cultures and various stories from Christians in those places. Helpfully, the images of the crosses are available online for you to copy and use. Here's one of them.

In a couple of days I may post the text from a Lent leaflet we did last year, with a brief introduction to Lent and suggestions for what people might take up/give up.