The penitential season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and runs through Holy Week. This period is a time of personal spiritual reflection for Christians marked by an effort to repent for sins. How do people forgive each other and themselves?
For more background on Lent, Read “Ashes to Ashes,” an essay from ChristianHistory.net about how the early tradition of pre-Lenten repentance developed into our modern practice of Ash Wednesday.
For many Christians, the idea of Lent as all self-denial and sacrifice is outdated and needs to be reworked.
“Seize the Day: Reimagining Ash Wednesday,” a column at Patheos.com by a self-described progressive pastor, Bruce Epperly, who plans to go to a spa on Ash Wednesday and focus on enjoying the wonders of the everyday world.
Focusing on social justice remains a Lenten priority for some believers who feel the ongoing economic difficulties require Christians to try to do more for their neighbors.
The do-it-yourself website eHow.com has a four-step guide, “How to Observe Lent During a Recession,” that focuses on helping others with donations or giving of one’s time.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is promoting efforts to support refugees this Lent. “Rather than focusing on self-denial this Lent, we invite you to care for sojourning neighbors by standing with them and praying for them,” LIRS says in its promotional materials.
Guilt is often associated with Lent. Guilt may not be our favorite topic, but it’s a fact of life—and often a motivation for repentance. New research offers insights into how we process feelings of guilt.
Read “Does Guilt Inadvertently Lead to More Guilt?” a Feb. 22, 2011, column at ScienceAnd ReligionToday.com.
A Feb. 3, 2011, post at New Scientist magazine rounds up research indicating that suffering physical pain—the old-fashioned way of expiating guilt—is, in fact, effective at easing feelings of guilt.
A Jan. 25, 2011, column at Scientific American reports on a new study that finds we tend to overestimate the healing power of an apology.
Pope Benedict XVI focused on the traditional themes of fasting, almsgiving and prayer in his Lenten message for 2011. “The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention toward others,” Benedict writes.
Also, a February 2010 feature from Christianity Today, “Lent: Why Bother?” features essays by three writers: Steven R. Harmon, a Baptist pastor and associate professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., writes about why Baptists can observe Lent; author Frederica Mathewes-Green, who is founder with her husband of Baltimore’s Holy Cross Orthodox Church, writes that Lent is like a spiritual exercise akin to an athlete training for competition; and Michael Horton, an author and professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in California, writes that Lent is above all a spiritual pilgrimage.
