How to Have a Fruitful Lent:

 

Another Lenten season will soon begin.  Each year I try to pair down my thoughts on how to have a fruitful Lenten season and each year I fail.  I apologize for the length of this section, but hope that it serves as a robust invitation to this somber yet wonderful season of the church year so that we may all walk the Lenten road together on our way to the Cross.

 

Lent is an invitation to a season focused on the healing of our souls through the practice of asceticism and discipline.  We begin our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday where we are vividly confronted with the reality of our own mortality and sinfulness.  As the season of sanctified time progresses we journey closer and closer to the cross of Christ in order to crucify our sinful nature so that we may more fully have the life of Christ dwelling within us.

 

If we take seriously the journey of the season - a journey of increasingly identifying with the suffering, passion, and death of Christ by fully embracing true penitence, discipline, and asceticism, then we open up within our lives a greater capacity to receive God's sanctifying grace.  We must remember, however, that the practice of Lenten disciplines is not transactional in nature.  We do not earn spiritual credit with God by doing various tasks.  Rather, the emphasis of Lent is that by partaking in the disciplines of the Church we cultivate humility and love for God and our for our neighbor and are thus brought to greater repentance in a way that it allows the work of God to penetrate the darkest recesses of our souls.

 

Historically, the church has upheld prayer and meditation, fasting and abstinence, and almsgiving as the pillars of Lenten piety while encouraging a general reduction in busyness and forms of frivolous entertainment.  When we practice these disciplines with humility and love we enter into the Lenten life of the Church so that by God's grace, our souls may be fertile soil in which the Word of God flourishes.  Below are some thoughts on how we might more fully incorporate the three pillars of Lent into our lives in the approaching season.

 

• Prayer and Meditation: While prayer likely already has a place in our everyday lives, we should strive to be more disciplined in keeping the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, and seek to include more times of conversational prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
  
  Some practical suggestions for increasing our lives of prayer and meditation: 
  
  • Pray the Daily Offices: Pray Morning and Evening Prayer at home or join Morning and Evening Prayer at the church.  If your schedule won't allow you to join in person or you find the need to sanctify your commute, then I suggest the podcast “Cradle of Prayer.”  There you will find the daily office from the 1928 Prayer Book prayed and sung by a faithful priest and a cantor.
    
    
  • Read the Holy Scriptures: Increasing our time in the scriptures by even a small amount will help our souls to be receptive to the word of God.
    
    
  • Stations of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross assist us in contemplatively and prayerfully focusing on our Lord's journey to the Cross.  See below for our schedule.
    
    
  • Holy Reading: Spiritual reading can greatly enhance our focus and discipline during Lent.  This is a great practice to add as we cut out other forms of entertainment during Lent.  Our Monday night parish study will be studying E.L. Mascall's book: Grace and Glory.  The parish has purchased a small number of copies, even if you cannot make our Monday night study you are welcome to take a copy and read along with us.
    
    
  • Confession: As we struggle against sin and the flesh during the Lenten season it is good for us to examine ourselves and partake of the sacrament of confession.  If you would like to schedule a time for confession please let the clergy know.  
    
    
• Fasting and Abstinence: This is usually the first thing people think of when they consider Lenten disciplines.  The general rule of the church is that every day of Lent (except Sundays) is a day of fasting, while Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent are days of fasting and abstinence.  Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are days of strict fasting and observance as much as one is able.
  
  Fasting pertains to the amount of food we eat.  Usually meaning that we reduce our consumption; eating two small snack-like meals and one regular meal a day with no desserts or snacks throughout the day.  Additionally it is common to fast from pleasures like alcohol, tobacco, sweets, or other such items.
  
  Abstinence refers to the type of food we eat. On Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent we typically refrain from eating flesh-meat (i.e. any meat except seafood).
  
  The practice of fasting and abstaining from certain foods can be a bit intimidating, but fasting according to the rule of the church as much as we are able tends to be much more spiritually beneficial than simply 'giving something up' as many in our culture do.  It allows a humble posture of obedience to govern our fast and guide us into the practice of fasting.
  
  As with many things, concessions may be made for those who are unable to fast due to their health or age, the physical demands of their job, or the need to care for others like pregnant or nursing mothers.  A general rule offered by our Bishop is that our fasting and abstinence during Lent should be “simple enough to accomplish and yet difficult enough so that we are stretched and challenged in order to help us cooperate more with God's grace.”   
  
  You can find a more detailed account of the traditional western practice of fasting in the brochures in the parish narthex or in the St. Augustine's Prayer Book.  
  
  
• Almsgiving: Lenten alms are gifts to benefit others that are beyond our traditional tithes and offerings to the church.  Through giving, we fulfill our Christian duty to care for those in need and lessen the grip that money and material goods have on us while learning to trust in the Lord's provision for our lives. One way to practice this discipline is to use the money saved on food through our fasting to help those in need.
  
  If you are looking for places where you may direct your alms, please consider one of the options below.  This is, of course, not an exhaustive list and you may give your alms wherever you feel is most beneficial.    
  
  • Chester County Connect Care: A county-wide pro-life organization offering a variety of free medical services for women facing unexpected pregnancy.
     
    
  • A Baby's Breath: A pregnancy crisis center located in Phoenixville (with additional surrounding locations).  The Phoenixville location offers housing in addition to counseling and other forms of assistance for mothers in crisis.  Volunteer opportunities are also available.
    
    
  • St. Paul Mission Society: The mission society of the Anglican Catholic Church.  This society funds and supports work both international and domestic. 
    
    
  • Phoenixville Area Community Services: PACS is a local organization that assists those with food insecurity in the greater Phoenixville area.  They are accepting both goods and financial donations.
    
    
  • Orion Communities: A local organization that assists those in need of rental or utility assistance.

For some, this list may feel complicated or burdensome, for others, it may fill us with a sort of zeal to keep the most arduous disciplines that we can imagine; but a wise spiritual principle that should guide our planning for Lent is that it is much better to keep a simple rule well, than to keep a more complicated one poorly.  In other words, the best rule is the one that we actually keep.  

 

After all, we seek to stretch ourselves, not to crush ourselves.  The goal is spiritual growth and attentiveness through the practice of ascetical discipline. We should not view Lent as 'all or nothing' but as a yearly journey which takes us deeper and deeper each year to the cross of our Lord.  Spiritual growth is a long-term process and the rule of the Church helps us to wade into the waters of repentance.  There is no shame in needing to adjust our Lenten practices as we seek to learn the disciplines of the Church.  Just like learning to swim, we start shallow and over time we move out into the deeper waters of disciplined practice.  

 

Again, I commend our Bishop's words when developing a Lenten rule:  It "should be simple enough that we can stick to it, and challenging enough to help us cooperate more fully with God's grace, and grow in our capacity to love Him."  For we remember that above all else the season of Lent and the disciplines therein are not an end in themselves. The end, for all that we do in the Church, is always Christ!  

 

Let us enter cheerfully and expectantly into this to season of repentance, knowing that the sacrifice acceptable to God is a "broken and contrite heart" (Psalm 51) and that he is faithful to "forgive the sins of all those who are penitent" (Collect for Ash Wednesday). May God grant us all a blessed and fruitful Lent! - Fr. Ben

 

*If you need counsel or assistance in adapting or developing Lenten plan or rule please seek out the clergy for counsel and advice.*

 

The Collect for Ash Wednesday:

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou has made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.    ( BCP, p. 124 - To be prayed every day in Lent after the Collect for the Day.)