Ad-Lent
Admittedly, the season of Ad-Lent is of my own understanding. This is that time of year when I prepare for and await the season of Lent. For many Christians Lent begins a time of prayer and reflection communing with Christ and preparing for the greatest of all Christian events, Easter. Ad-Lent is the time when I think of ways in which I can mark the season of Lent memorably.
Fasting, almsgiving, prayer and spiritual preparations will mark the 40 days prior to Easter to commemorate Jesus' time spent in the wilderness. So this is when I start asking myself what I can do to make my Lenten experience a spiritual one.
In years past I have given up soft drinks and given the money I usually spent on this luxury to a special church offering. The result was that I now seldom drink softdrinks. I just don't like them the way I used to. I wish I could say the same about chocolate. I tried giving it up one year and found this to be one of the most difficult practices (and I still love it today as much as I ever have.) The purposes of these exercises are to bring us closer to Jesus in our spiritual disciplines. While the money I donated was surely an act of charity–which is a spiritual discipline, I cannot say that depriving myself of frivolities such as colas or chocolate brought me into the presence of Christ in the way I had hoped.
This year my focus is on the 'communing with Christ' part of the Lenten season. We Disciples are serious about our communion. Every time we gather, we celebrate that great meal in remembrance of Him. This year I'm wondering if simply starting each day with bread and grape can provide for me the reminder of that gift I so long to encounter during those insanely busy morning routines. If I start my day with a piece of toast and a smudge of grape jelly or a glass of grape juice it might just put my head and heart in the focus I'm looking for this Lenten season. Could it be that easy?
Our Lenten disciplines are not supposed to make our lives complicated nor become such that no average person can maintain the practice. The idea is to give the soul a spring cleaning. Carla Mae Streeter, O.P. says in her book Seasons of the Soul, "Deep within the human heart, covered over by layers of denial, there is an awareness of accountability. I am accountable to someone for my life." For us Christians, we are accountable to the One who loves us fully. Easter shows us that death does not and will not have the last word. A love like that certainly deserves contemplation. My goal this Lenten season will be to create some way that I will be reminded of the fact that I am accountable to the greatest Love ever.
We shall soon all be set upon a Lenten journey that carries us to the celebration of Easter. I look forward to hearing how you get there.
a fellow traveler,
Tracy