As Christians throughout the world gathered to meet for Shrove Tuesday pancakes and Ash Wednesday services, so did I and some friends here in Vancouver. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of the 70 some pancakes me and my roommate made on Tuesday night for a pancake dinner with about 25-30 people, but it was a lot of fun.
It makes me reflect on how much I love the liturgical calendar, this way of helping me to orientate myself to God throughout the year. I also embrace the season of Lent and the fact that our Christian faith incorporates in it room for doubt, mystery and questioning. It speaks to me of our humanness, and the authenticity of the Christian journey. Most Lents, I try and have some reading, liturgy etc.. that is my companion for the road and this year I picked up ‘All Shall Be Well’, readings for Lent and Easter edited my Michael Leach, with a whole bunch of different reflections from a range of Christians. This morning, I was reading a reflection by Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and he articulated some of this,
“In this season it is permitted to reflect on the pain in our lives and to even acknowledge that there are times when God seems utterly absent. Christians spend their lives between the words of Jesus that ask God, why have you forsaken me, and the others that proclaim into your hands I commend my spirit. The testimony of Psalm 139 is that no matter where we go, or what we do, whether we sense God, or we don’t – God is. God is Present. Lent offers us the opportunity to tear away all that would blind us, or numb us to that reality.”
Alongside this, the liturgy book I use for morning prayers had this quote from Julian of Norwich this morning too,
“He said not ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be diseased’; but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.”
My prayer is that these will be encouraging reflections as you begin the season of Lent this year.
Breather 