Lent begins just one week from today on Ash Wednesday, 2/17. Last week I compiled some information on Lent for our community here in Buenos Aires, including some helpful quotes from Christine Sine on her GodSpace blog, basic facts, and some website resources. I posted it below. If you have followed my blog in years past, a lot of this will look familiar.
Our community plans to focus on Word Made Flesh's nine Lifestyle Celebrations during Lent. We will make space to reflect and examine our lives in light of these Lifestyle Celebrations. And ask ourselves, "What do we need to die to in order to live more fully into each Lifestyle Celebration?"
What Is Lent Anyway?
“Lent is a time for 'confrontation with the false self' (Thomas Keating) when we reflect on the responses and behaviors we exhibit that are least Christ like and seek God’s help in rededicating ourselves to God and God’s purposes. This is a time for self-denial and fasting when we give up some of the comforts of our lives in order to make ourselves more available to God.”
~ Christine Sine, GodSpace Blog (January 16, 2009)
What Is Lent Preparing Us For?
“Lent is primarily about preparing us to live in the world that Christ’s resurrection brought into being - the kingdom of God world - what I like to call God’s resurrection created world. It is about preparing us to follow the one who 'transfigured the world with the Spirit of life.'”
~ Christine Sine, GodSpace Blog (February 26, 2009) http://godspace.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/what-is-lent-preparing-us-for/
• Lent is the forty-day period before Easter, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends during Holy Week with Maundy Thursday. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, they are not included in the 40-days of Lent.
• Lent originated in the 4th-century with parallels to Jesus’ 40-days in the desert as a time of preparation for baptism at the Easter Vigil. It was a time of preparation for the entire Faith community.
• Today this period of Lent is a time of prayer and preparation for Easter, which most often includes elements of introspection, self-examination, and repentance.
Website Resources:
CRI Voice: Introduction to Lent
The Season of Lent by Dennis Bratcher
(Includes other Lent and Holy Week readings and links.)
Godspace Blog by Christine Sine
(2010 Lenten blog series: “Walking to the Cross: Why Don’t We Follow?” Also includes other Lent reflections and links.)
A Journey into Wholeness Lenten Series by Christine Sine
(This guide was created by Christine Sine in 2009.)
Upper Room: Lent 101
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