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From the Clergy<br />
People often don’t look <strong>for</strong>ward to Lent.<br />
Childhood memories of giving up chocolate or<br />
sitting through weekly Stations of the Cross<br />
come immediately to mind. Words like<br />
“sacrifice,” “discipline,” <strong>and</strong> “self-denial” are<br />
often used in ways that suggest that Lent is<br />
something to be endured rather than a time of<br />
grace <strong>and</strong> spiritual growth.<br />
These negative feelings about Lent were<br />
somewhat ‘crowned’ (in my opinion) by one<br />
Archdeacon in Leicester advising the faithful to<br />
‘give up Lent <strong>for</strong> Lent’ (thankfully <strong>not</strong> that many<br />
people took him altogether seriously!)<br />
But should we <strong>not</strong> be thinking of Lent as a<br />
yearly second chance? It is true that during<br />
these weeks we are invited to look into the<br />
mirror that our faith sometimes holds up to us<br />
<strong>and</strong> the world. In that mirror we are to see<br />
ourselves, our lives <strong>and</strong> the things we take ‘<strong>for</strong><br />
normal’ in the way that God might want them to<br />
be contemplated.<br />
In that mirror we may well see that things as we<br />
live them, things as we accept them <strong>and</strong> things<br />
as we sometimes expect them, are rather falling<br />
bla bla bla bal<br />
Each year the Church gives us six weeks to take<br />
a long, loving look at our lives to see if our<br />
values <strong>and</strong> priorities are in line with God’s<br />
desires <strong>for</strong> us. Since most of us find that we’ve<br />
w<strong>and</strong>ered from God’s path, Lent becomes that<br />
second chance, or do-over, to “return to God<br />
with our whole heart.”<br />
With my love <strong>and</strong> prayers,<br />
Fr Simon Lumby<br />
3
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