The Spiritual Discipline Of Lent

The following article describes the Lenten spiritual journey and suggests practical means for personal and corporate renewal. Nearly everyone knows the clichs concerning Lent: we are to "give up" something as a kind of obscure penance. Protestants of a more austere piety have made much of the need for a season of self-denial as a test of pious discipline. Whereas Roman Catholics undergo (or used to undergo) a Lenten period of obligatory abstinence, Protestants of a more Reformed sensibility have focused upon moral introspection, perhaps with fewer chocolates. Such practices are not without merit, especially for those of us in economic conditions of abundance. Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, however, call for something else. Rather than a season for giving up something, let us consider Lent a season of taking on something. At the very heart of the Christian faith is our common participation in the life, suffering, death, resurrection, and Spirit-giving of Jesus Christ. Such pa…