Springtime is drawing near in the northern hemisphere. Days are becoming longer as sunlight continues into the evening. Snow and ice have begun to melt off in many regions. The first flowers poke out of the ground while tree limbs swell and buds begin to appear. There’s a sense of newness and hope.
Springtime. You’ll likely be surprised to learn that “springtime” is the meaning of the word “lent.” The etymological roots of “lent” are from Old English, but can also be traced to Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, and Old High German. It’s a Northern European word with origins probably from700 to 1000 CE. Its original usage was to denote the season of spring.
If you’re like me, while the Christian season of Lent may have coincided with the season of spring, it had nothing to do with spring. It usually felt like the darkest part of winter: stark, stern, foreboding, and filled with onerous services and devotions that felt like drudgery. But that’s not the association made with Lent in the first millennia of Christianity.
Lent was a time of promise. Yes, it was a fast. It was a fast made in preparation for baptism at Easter. Preparing for baptism is not a mournful time. In this time of preparation, a person is getting ready to take on a new identity as a follower of the teachings of Jesus. Baptism leads to a new relationship with the community of faith — a community in which one becomes a full member. Most importantly, lent was a time to grow more fully in one’s experience of and relationship with the Divine.
Perhaps Lent can make more sense to us today if we simply view it as a time to focus on the spiritual dimension of our lives. Consider that many people today make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, and to lead healthier lives. Lent can be for us an opportunity to make resolutions to lead healthier spiritual lives. By moving our focus to spiritual practice over the forty day period called lent, we have the opportunity to make real changes that we can maintain day to day throughout the year.
Can’t someone do that at any time? Of course, they can. But the time of Lent provides us with a context in which others around us are committed to focus on spiritual growth. Sharing the experience with others empowers us to use the forty days of lent for our growth, healing, and wholeness.
The traditional practices of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I find that all three remain relevant today as they’ve been for people in past generations.
Prayer: taking time to simply be with God as we understand the Divine. That could be saying prayers and using devotions. But it may be taking time to be in nature, to practice mindfulness in daily activities, or to close the door and be silent for reflection.
We usually think of fasting in terms of food. Would fasting from activities that clutter your life be more helpful? I know people who fast from social media, or from checking phones during meals, or even fast from overwork. Perhaps fasting from gossip or negative talk would be a benefit to us. This fast of lent should help you to grow into the image of the Divine already within you.
Almsgiving is simply another word for charity. Showing compassion for others, putting the needs of others before our own, and showing respect and tenderness to those in pain are all part of almsgiving. Yes, you can donate to a favorite charity. That’s always a good thing. But it’s not all about the money. As my Muslim friends remind me, to smile at a stranger is a gift of charity.
Over the weeks of Lent, my plan is to use this blog to reflect with you on familiar stories from the teachings of Jesus as a way to open those stories to what may be new insights for spiritual growth. Sometimes, familiar stories lose their meaning. Perhaps over these weeks of Lent, we can look at them again for new insights about our lives, our growth, and our relationships with the Holy One and with others.
I’m looking forward to this springtime of Lent. I hope these weeks will be a time of new life for you as much as I hope they will be for me.
photo from Foter.com (CCO 10)